Battle for key Libya oil ports intensifies

Khalifa Haftar’s forces launch ground and air raids in attempt to take control of Ras Lanuf and Sidra from Benghazi militia

Eastern Libyan forces have launched a counter attack to try to regain key oil ports captured last week by Benghazi militias, with reports of fighting in the desert as armoured brigades advance.

Jets from the Libya National Army (LNA) struck the ports of Ras Lanuf and Sidra yesterday afternoon, according to eyewitnesses in Ras Lanuf town. The offensive by the LNA, commanded by Field Marshal Khalifa Haftar, was launched on Thursday night after a meeting of tribal elders in the eastern town of Benghazi endorsed it and pledged troops from the eastern region’s militias.

“The mood was angry, it was urgent, they signalled support [ for the offensive],” said one attendee at the meeting. Sidra and Ras Lanuf were captured from Field Marshal Haftar’s forces last Friday by the Benghazi Defence Brigades (BDB), a militia that is originally from Benghazi but was driven out by the LNA last year.

The BDB then handed control of the ports to the UN-backed Government of National Accord (GNA) in Tripoli, which is opposed by the eastern parliament, the House of Representatives, which in turn controls the LNA.

Photographs released in the early hours yesterday showed units of the LNA’s 106 infantry brigade driving through the desert, as well as what were claimed to be weapons and ammunition that had been captured from BDB units.

Fighting was reported to be intense at Al Ugaylah, a small coastal settlement 60 kilometres east of Ras Lanuf that has become a front line between the two forces.

Sidra and Ras Lanuf are key ports for the so-called oil crescent, a mass of oilfields stretching over much of eastern Libya and which produce much of the country’s oil. Both of them were closed this week by Libya’s National Oil Corporation, with incoming tankers diverted to other ports.

The BDB says it intends to launch an offensive of its own, pushing eastward from the ports down the coast against the LNA with the objective of capturing Benghazi.

“Our main goal is to retake our city, we reject injustice and military rule,” said BDB commander Mustafa Al Sharksi.

The BDB released footage of a convoy of families who fled Benghazi last year arriving on Wednesday at its positions near the oil ports, hopeful of following the brigade’s planned return to the city.

Meanwhile, a statement from the GNA defence ministry in Tripoli yesterday announced that it would send its own brigades from west and south Libya to reinforce the oil ports and oppose the LNA advance.

Mediation efforts are also under way. On Thursday, Gen Paolo Serra, military adviser to the United Nations Support Mission for Libya, met GNA officials in Tripoli to discuss port security, while mission chief Martin Kobler called for peace talks and called on all parties to respect the rules of war with no hostage-taking, no arbitrary detentions and no summary executions.

Yet opinions are hardening on all sides. In Tobruk, where the House of Representatives is based, the municipal council began collecting weapons on Thursday from civilians and local militias to send to the LNA frontline units.

The fighting around the ports has reduced Libya’s oil output to 620,000 barrels per day, a drop of about 80,000 bpd, the head of the National Oil Corporation said.

Mustafa Sanalla said production by Waha Oil, a joint venture with foreign partners that pumps oil to Sidra, had been halted entirely.

A port official at Ras Lanuf said production by another joint venture, Harouge Oil Operations, had also been affected, without giving details.

Staff at the ports had been cut to a minimum, officials said.