The army of Libya’s eastern parliament has seized three major oil terminals in the divided country’s so-called ‘oil crescent’ region.
Control of the terminals at Es Sider, Ras Lanuf and Zueitina were taken from the Petroleum Facilities Guard, which is affiliated with the UN-backed Government of National Accord (GNA) and has controlled the facilities since 2013.
“Our armed forces were able to take control of Zuwaytina port and secure it completely,” Mohammad al-Azumi, a spokesman for the Tobruk-based eastern parliament said today, quoted by Middle East Eye.
The Tripoli-based GNA today ordered its armed forces to head to Libya’s oil-producing region to try to wrest back control of the oil ports from the House of Represenatives’ forces.
“This step goes against progress towards a comprehensive unity agreement, and crushes the hopes of Libyans for stability and an end to the bloodshed,” a GNA spokesperson told press in Tripoli on Monday.
The GNA has said the attacks on oil terminals were conducted by a contingent comprised of “foreign mercenaries and illegitimate forces”.
Ibrahim Jadhran, head of the Petroleum Facilities Guard, had recently pledged to restart exports from the terminals, which have been plagued by strikes and outages for the past two years.
Es Sider and Ras Lanuf account for 700,000 bpd in export capacity.
