TRIPOLI — The
UN and
Washington's ambassador to Libya on Monday urged an armed group to lift a
blockade at two major oil fields amid a mounting political crisis.
اضافة اعلان
Libya's
National Oil Corporation (NOC) said Sunday
that production was suspended at the vast Al-Sharara and Al-Fil fields after
gunmen cut off their pipelines.
Stephanie Williams, UN chief
Antonio Guterres's special adviser on the North African nation, said she was following
the reports "with concern".
"Blocking oil production deprives all
Libyans from their major source of revenue," Williams wrote on Twitter.
"The oil blockade should be lifted".
US Ambassador Richard Norland also called
for the blockade to "be lifted immediately".
Oil revenues are vital to the war-torn
country, which sits on Africa's largest known reserves.
The NOC said the latest blockade would slash
state revenues by around $35 million a day.
The NOC had on Sunday declared force
majeure, a legal move allowing parties to free themselves from contractual
obligations when factors such as fighting or natural disasters make meeting
them impossible.
Libya has undergone a decade of chaos since
the 2011 uprising that overthrew and killed dictator Muammar Gaddafi.
Oil installations have often been attacked
or blockaded by armed groups seeking to extract concessions such as jobs or a
better share of revenues.
The latest blockade comes as
crude prices
edge closer to an all-time high on supply worries after Russia's invasion of
Ukraine, with Brent North Sea crude nearing $140 per barrel on Monday.
It also comes days after the eastern-based
parliament installed a new prime minister, former interior minister Fathi
Bashagha, a rival to the unity government led by Abdulhamid Dbeibah in the
capital Tripoli in the west.
Dbeibah, who has vowed only to hand power to
an elected government, on Monday ordered security forces in the country's west
to "take the necessary measures" to reopen the pipelines after they
were closed down by "outlaws".
After reports that flights between the east
and west of Libya had been suspended, Williams also warned Monday that
"freedom of movement around the country is a basic right and all civilian
flights should be resumed".
The US embassy said in a tweet that
restoring flight services "between east and west is an important signal of
national unity at a critical time" and that they were "prepared to
assist in facilitating this as soon as possible."
Tripoli's aviation authorities have not
officially confirmed the suspension of flights.
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