BENGHAZI (Reuters) – Production at Libya’s El Feel oilfield was stopped on Thursday, a tribal leader and an oil engineer told Reuters by telephone.
The stoppage is considered as a protest over the kidnapping of a former finance minister, according to the tribal leader.
El Feel field, has a capacity of 70,000 barrels per day, is operated by Mellitah Oil and Gas which is a joint venture between the state oil firm NOC and Italy’s Eni.
No immediate comments were available by the NOC.
The oil engineer said a number of protesters entered the field and had forced the staff to leave after operations were shut down.
“The field [El Feel ] has stopped,” the engineer said.
The leader of Zawi tribe, al-Senussi al-ahlaiq, told Reuters by telephone that the closure of El Feel aims to pressure the authorities in Tripoli to release their son Faraj Bumatari the finance minister in the former government in a protest for his “kidnapping after he arrived at Mitiga airport” on Tuesday.
The tribe threatened in a recorded statement on Wednesday evening that they will shut down oil facilities until their son Bumatari is freed.
“The matter will be greater and preparations are going on too to close the water supply to Tripoli,” al-ahlaiq said.
Bumatari is a candidate to position of central bank governor, the tribe said in a written statement, adding that “makes him vulnerable to danger and kidnapping.”
The U.N. mission in Libya said in a statement that the “shutdown must be immediately ended,” and it is disturbed by the reports of shutdown of some oil fields in response to the abduction of Bumatari.
“This would needlessly cost the Libyan people their main source of income,” the U.N. said.
The mission added that five members of the High State Council (HSC) were also reportedly banned from travelling at the same airport.
HSC is a legislation chamber that emerged from the first elected parliament in 2012 in Tripoli, in negotiations with the House of Representatives in eastern Benghazi that was elected in 2014 in a bid to reach a consensus over electoral laws that would lead the country to national elections.
“These acts create a climate of fear, promote tension between communities and tribes,” said the mission.
The HSC head Khalid Mishri held Prime Minister Abdulhamid Dabaibathe accountable for the safety of council members, saying in a recorded statement “any recklessness from the prime minister against any member of the HSC members will mean that we have descended strongly and urgently towards a conflict.”
Libyan oil output has been subjected to repeated closures for different political reasons and local protesters’ demands during the chaotic decade since the 2011 NATO-backed uprising against Muammar Gaddafi.
(Reporting by Ayman Werfalli in Benghazi, Writing by Ahmed Elumami and Clauda Tanios; editing by David Evans and Diane Craft)
