Page 10 - DMEA Week 11 2022

DMEA TERMINALS & SHIPPING DMEA

Libyan residents threaten to

blockade coastal terminals

AFRICA RESIDENTS of the Libyan coastal region known residents of the Oil Crescent are hoping to see
as the Oil Crescent have reportedly threatened Dbeibah ousted from power and to convince the
to halt crude exports in an attempt to break the international community to recognise the new
impasse between rival political factions. government headed by Bashagha.
At the weekend, they threatened to halt oper- They said in a statement published on March
ations at the country’s oil export terminals unless 11 that Libya’s current political crisis could be
the UN Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL) resolved through presidential and parliamen-
stopped providing support to the interim Gov- tary elections, as well as the adoption of a new
ernment of National Unity (GNU) in Tripoli, constitution.
according to Asharq Al-Awsat. Bashagha recently sought to enter Tripoli to
As of March 14, it was not clear whether they assume his post but failed to do so. Stephanie
had carried out that threat. Closure of the termi- Williams, the UN special advisor on Libya, told
nals would have an immediate impact on Libyan Bloomberg on March 11 that she had suggested
production and exports, as the Oil Crescent is the two would-be prime ministers meet to nego-
home to several major terminals, including facil- tiate a solution. Dbeibah and his rival have both
ities at Brega, Ras Lanuf, Sidra and Zueitina. responded positively to calls for constructive
Most residents of the Oil Crescent favour dialogue, she said.
the new government that was appointed earlier Williams was speaking the day after Mustafa
this year by Libya’s House of Representatives Sanalla, the head of Libya’s National Oil Corp.
and headed by Prime Minister-designate Fathi (NOC), met with US State Department officials
Bashagha. in Washington to discuss the country’s crude
This faction is also backed by Khalifa Haftar, production plans and energy development
the head of the Libyan National Army (LNA), a strategy.
powerful armed group that controls much of the Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary Joey
eastern part of the country, including the four oil Hood said in a statement after the meeting that
terminals mentioned above. he had made clear the US government’s support
However, the GNU, which is headed by Prime for NOC’s policy of remaining neutral – that is,
Minister Abdul Hamid Dbeibah, still holds the “independent” – in the struggle between armed
capital, Tripoli. According to Asharq Al-Awsat, factions.™

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