Several western countries welcomed the National Oil Corporation (NOC)’s decision to lift the force majeure at el-Sharara oil field in the south of Libya and resume production.
Ambassadors of France, Italy, the UK, and the US stressed in a joint statement released on Saturday by the US embassy in Libya that oil facilities should remain under the control of the NOC and the supervision of the Government of National Accord, as set forth in the UN Security Council Resolutions 2259 (2015), 2278 (2016), and 2362 (2017).
The statement also praised the role of the United Nations Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL) and the UN envoy to Libya Ghassan Salame in strengthening the security arrangements that allowed the NOC to resume work in the southern oil fields.
The NOC decided last Wednesday to lift the force majeure at Sharara oil field, noting that the losses incurred due to the closure amounted to $1.8 billion.
It pointed out that it has developed a plan to compensate for production losses due to looting and sabotage during the closure, estimated at about 200,000 barrels per day.
