TRIPOLI, April 21 (Xinhua) -- A terrorist group on Saturday blew up a crude oil pipeline near the capital Tripoli, the Libyan petroleum installations guards said.

"An explosion and fire broke out as a result of terrorist act in one of the valves on the 24 inch crude oil pipeline northwest of the town of Mrada, some 500km east of Tripoli," the petroleum installations guards said in a statement.

The pipeline belongs to Waha oil Cooperation, connecting the company's fields in Mrada oil basin to Sidra oil port in the oil crescent region.

"The bombing targeted the same pipeline that was bombed last year, while some maintenance operations were being carried out by the company," adding the statement.

Libya's state-owned National Oil Corporation (NOC) has not comment yet on the material damage caused by the bombing.

In December 2017, a terrorist group bombed a crude oil pipeline of Waha company in a desert area through which it passes to Sidra oil port.

The repairs took more than a week, causing losses of more than 10 million U.S. dollars. </s> BENGHAZI, Libya, April 21 (Reuters) - A Libyan crude pipeline owed by the al-Waha oil company was attacked on Saturday by a “terrorist group”, a company source said.

A fire broke out but it was to early to say whether production had been affected, the source said. The pipeline was attacked in December. (Ulf.Laessing@thomsonreuters.com) </s> BENGHAZI, Libya (Reuters) - A Libyan crude pipeline owned by the al-Waha oil company, feeding the port of Es Sider, was set on fire on Saturday causing the loss of between 70,000 barrels per day and 100,000 bpd, state firm NOC said.

NOC said on its Twitter feed the cause of the fire on the El-Zkout - Es Sider pipeline was unknown but a Waha source said a “terrorist group” was behind it.

The pipeline was attacked in December. Production loss then was also put at between 70,000 barrels a day and 100,000 bpd.

The fire broke out 21km from North West Marada, NOC roughly the same area of the December attack.

The area is frequented by Islamic State fighters, Libyan officials have said.

NOC said its fire fighters were at the site. </s> FILE: Production loss from a December attack on a Libyan pipeline was estimated at between 70,000 barrels a day and 100,000 bpd. Photo: Reuters

BENGHAZI, Libya - A Libyan crude pipeline owned by the al-Waha oil company, feeding the port of Es Sider, was attacked on Saturday by a “terrorist group”, state company NOC said.

A fire broke out but it was too early to say whether production had been affected, the source said.

The pipeline was attacked in December, causing a loss of production estimated at between 70,000 barrels a day and 100,000 bpd.

The fire broke out 21km from North West Marada, NOC roughly the same area of the December attack.

The area is frequented by Islamic State fighters, Libyan officials have said.

NOC said its firefighters were at the site. </s> A Libyan crude pipeline owned by the al-Waha oil company, feeding the Es Sider port, was set on fire on Saturday causing the loss of between 70,000 and 100,000 barrels per day.

The state’s National Oil Corporation (NOC) said on its Twitter feed, the cause of the fire on the El-Zkout – Es Sider pipeline was unknown but a Waha source said a “terrorist group” was behind it.

The pipeline was attacked in December. The fire broke out 21km from North West Marada, NOC roughly the same area of the December attack.

Libyan officials have said, the area is frequented by Islamic State fighters.NOC said its fire fighters were on site. </s> A Libyan crude pipeline owned by the al-Waha oil company, feeding the port of Es Sider, was attacked on Saturday by a “terrorist group”, a company source said, Reuters reported.

A fire broke out but it was to early to say whether production had been affected, the source said. </s> BENGHAZI, Libya, April 21 (Reuters) - A Libyan crude pipeline owned by the al-Waha oil company, feeding the port of Es Sider, was attacked on Saturday by a "terrorist group", a company source said.

A fire broke out but it was to early to say whether production had been affected, the source said. The pipeline was attacked in December. Production loss then was put at between 70,000 barrels a day and 100,000 bpd. (Reporting by Ulf Laessing; editing by Andrew Roche) </s> A fire that broke out on a pipeline operated by Libya’s Waha Oil Co that feeds Es Sider port has been brought under control, an engineer at the port said on Sunday.

Libya’s National Oil Corporation (NOC) had said it expected a loss of production of 70,000-100,000 barrels per day because of the fire which broke out on Saturday.

NOC said it was investigating the fire 21km (13 miles) from North West Marada. A source from Waha said militants were suspected of attacking the pipeline.

Militants were blamed for a previous attack on the pipeline in December, when the NOC also reported a production loss of 70,000-100,000 barrels per day.

The pipeline was repaired within a few days after the December attack.

Libyan officials have said fighters loyal to Islamic State are present in the area. </s> BENGHAZI, Libya (Reuters) - Repairs to a pipeline operated by Libya’s Waha Oil Co that was damaged by fire due to an attack are expected to take “a few days”, National Oil Corp said on Sunday.

NOC said the expected loss of production would be 80,000 barrels per day (bpd) after the fire broke out at an isolation valve 21 km (13 miles) from North West Marada on Saturday.

NOC and an engineer at Es Sider port, which the pipeline feeds, said the fire had been brought under control in the early hours of Sunday. “Early investigations indicate that the fire was started as a result of sabotage,” NOC said in a statement.

“Waha Oil Co maintenance teams have started work on the pipeline, with repair work estimated to complete within a few days.”

Militants were blamed for a previous attack on the pipeline in December, when NOC reported a similar production loss of 70,000-100,000 bpd.

Libya’s oil infrastructure has been repeatedly targeted by militants in recent years. Fighters loyal to Islamic State are in the area south of the country’s oil crescent, which includes Es Sider, according to Libyan and Western officials.

The pipeline was repaired within a few days after the December attack and output returned to normal levels. </s> Gunmen stormed the headquarters of Libya’s national oil company in Tripoli on Monday, setting off explosions, taking hostages and spraying gunfire, leaving several people dead or wounded before forces aligned with the government took control of the building. The identity and motives of the assailants were not clear.

The oil company said two of its employees had been killed, and there were reports of two gunmen killed, putting the total number of dead at four. But an employee who escaped the assault said he believed that as many as six people had been killed, including three of the assailants.

The attack follows a month of escalating violence among rival militias competing for control of Tripoli, the capital, where a United Nations-backed government has its headquarters but remains largely powerless. Last week, clashes killed more than 60 people.

Any attack on the national oil company is significant because petroleum is the lifeblood of the Libyan economy, and competition for control of the country’s vast oil reserves is at the heart of the often violent struggle for power there.

Cuts in oil revenue because of the fighting have driven Libya into a severe financial crisis, with the government failing to meet the public payrolls, long lines forming at banks, and inflation soaring.

The employee who escaped, Baha Elddin, said in an interview that six men armed with “machine guns” had fought their way into the building. Three had blown themselves up, he said, and three others had climbed the stairs to the upper floors.

Elddin said that local militia fighters had responded to the incursion by besieging the building and that their gunfire may have caused the most casualties. “They started shooting at the assailants inside while the assailants threw grenades down on them from the second floor,” Elddin said in a telephone interview. “I think that most injuries happened because the respondents were shooting in.”

On Facebook, a government-aligned militia described the assault as a “terrorist attack” and the assailants as “suicide bombers.”

Speaking in the early afternoon in Tripoli, Mr. Elddin said that the battle had ended with as many as 10 employees injured, and that it was unclear whether the three assailants who had climbed the stairs had escaped from the scene. He and the militia both described the attackers as dark-skinned, suggesting they could be from ethnic groups native to Libya or from other African countries.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack.

The chairman of the state oil company, Mustafa Sanallah, escaped unharmed, and experts said it was unlikely that the attack would directly affect Libya’s oil production. But the events demonstrated that the country’s oil infrastructure remains vulnerable.

“It’s a reminder that the country remains at risk,” said Riccardo Fabiani, a geopolitical analyst at Energy Aspects, a market research firm. “There is still a backdrop of violence and instability that could again cut production at anytime in the future.”

Libya has descended into chaos in the seven years since the overthrow of Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi. The United Nations and Western powers have tried to set up a government based in Tripoli that might be able to unify the country.

But so far, power in Tripoli and Western Libya remains divided among rival local or Islamist militias. A would-be strongman, Gen. Khalifa Hifter, dominates the Eastern area around Benghazi, thanks in part to the backing of Egypt and the United Arab Emirates.

The Islamic State, also known as ISIS or ISIL, had controlled its own beachhead around the coastal city of Sirte until it was driven out by Western airstrikes and local militias in 2016. Many of its fighters have fled into the sparsely populated desert regions. They occasionally stage terrorist attacks on institutions of the rival governments backed by the United Nations and General Hifter, including a similar assault last spring on an election commission.

Several parties agreed in May to hold elections in December for a president and a Parliament. How and by whom that vote might be conducted and secured remains to be determined, and the recent fighting in Tripoli underscores the scale of the challenge.

Analysts say the National Oil Corporation has managed to remain neutral amid the turmoil. It has increased production — which fell to almost nothing after war broke out in 2011 — to around one million barrels a day.

That is still significantly below prewar output, but analysts say that under current circumstances, it is probably close to the maximum Libya can produce. Oil producing centers, pipelines and export terminals around the country are vulnerable to attack.

Monday’s assault comes at a time of growing concerns about global oil supplies. As the Trump administration tries to cut off Iranian exports, they have declined to around two million a day in August from about 2.7 million barrels a day in May, and they are expected to drop to 1.5 million a day in September, according to Energy Aspects. Venezuela’s output continues to decline amid political chaos and economic collapse.

“Too many market participants are way too complacent about Libya,” said Helima Croft, an analyst at RBC Capital Markets in New York.

“We are one major supply outage away from a super spike,” she added, referring to much higher prices. – New York Times
Libyan terrorists bomb an oil pipeline near Mrada, causing an explosion and fire. The same pipeline was previously attacked in December.