Libya’s oil and gas fields are facing a serious threat: they could suffer a complete and total shutdown. The next few hours are expected to see major developments.
According to the Washington-based energy platform ‘Energy’, following the developments in the Libyan oil sector, fears are growing that the House of Representatives in the east of the country will agree with the National Army to close all the fields, following the conflict over the choice of a governor for the Central Bank of Libya.
Talks about closing oil and gas fields in Libya come at a time when the country is facing a major crisis related to fuel shortages in many cities. This has led to severe traffic jams on the roads, in addition to the accumulation of queues.
In turn, the Prime Minister of the interim government of national unity, Abdelhamid Dbaiba, ordered the rapid opening of the closed stations and work around the clock, in addition to his directives to the designated Minister of the Interior and the Brega company, to force the fuel distribution companies to open the stations.
Are oil and gas fields closed in Libya?
Unofficial pages of social networking sites, as well as some local newspapers, have spread information about the existence of consultations between the House of Representatives and the Libyan army at present regarding the complete closure of oil and gas fields in Libya.
These consultations, the details of which are still unknown, come in the face of current tensions over the issue of changing the governor of the Central Bank of Libya, and the controversy over the decision to choose a new figure to assume this important role.
Commenting on the rumors about the approach of this step, the expert in charge of energy issues in Libya, engineer Mahmoud Mohamed, said that the issue of closing all oil and gas fields in Libya is nothing but a “threat” that will not be implemented.
The engineer added, in statements to the Specialized Energy Platform, that the Speaker of the Libyan House of Representatives, Aguila Saleh, cannot close all oil and gas fields in Libya because he fears international sanctions.
It is worth noting that the Libyan oil sector has experienced huge crises over the past 12 years, including the closure of fields amid protests and fighting, which led to a decline in the country’s production volume for many years, before security measures were restored and production returned to its pre-war level.
