Libya's Hariga Oil Port Shut Due to Strike
Libya's eastern oil export port Hariga shut down because of a strike over unpaid salaries of security guards, closing the country's last functioning export port apart from two offshore fields.
The closure will lower oil output to less than 300,000 barrels a day, a fraction of the 1.6 million Libya used to pump before the 2011 uprising toppling Muammar Gaddafi.
The terminal near Tobruk, with a capacity of 120,000 b/d has by and large escaped disruption thanks to its easterly position. In particular it has been unaffected by the attempted seizure by Libya Dawn of the Sidra and Ras Lanuf oil terminals and facilities.
However the port was closed on Saturday morning by striking security guards who complained they have not been paid. Reuters has reported that an unnamed tanker was being prevented from taking on 750,000 barrels of oil.
The loss of sales from Hariga means that the country’s hydrocarbon production may now be less than 150,000 b/d and much of this is being refined for local use. Even so Libya is now importing large quantities of petrol and diesel as well as liquid petroleum gas.
Hariga has closed several times due to strikes over payment demands from security guards which have been resolved within a week or two.
Libya's two biggest oil export ports, Es Sider and Ras Lanuf, shut in December when an armed faction allied to a self-declared Tripoli government moved east trying to seize them.
