10 February 2019, Dubai — Libya’s state-run National Oil Corp said on Saturday that its Chairman Mustafa Sanalla had discussed a crisis at the Sharara oil field with Repsol executives in Tripoli.
“Both parties called for a cessation of hostilities and armed conflict in and around the facility, essential to resume production operations,” it said of Thursday’s talks.
The North African nation’s biggest field is a focus of the conflict between the Tripoli-based internationally recognized government and a rival administration based in eastern Libya.
Protesters and tribesmen halted production at the Repsol-operated field, located in southern Libya, in December. The eastern-based government dispatched a force to seize the field on Wednesday.
Oil production in Libya, a member of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, OPEC, has been disrupted since the armed uprising that toppled Muammar Qaddafi in 2011.
*Maher Chmaytelli; Editing: Alexander Smith – Reuters
