National Oil Corporation issued the following announcement on Dec. 9.

A group of so-called ‘civilians’ (30th Light Infantry Battalion) attached to the Petroleum Facilities Guard (PFG) have physically threatened Sharara oilfield employees in an effort to force them to halt operations. Local production had continued without interruption until this point thanks to the courage of local staff.

PFG were successful in forcibly closing a number of pumps, which will result in on-site tanks filling within the next few hours and thus force a production shutdown. An employee evacuation plan would need to be immediately implemented hereafter.

The National Oil Corporation (NOC) warns of the severity of these developments as well as expected robbery and vandalism in the field following the evacuation - holding the aggressors directly responsible for any such developments.

Shutting down production at Sharara will result in multiple long-term catastrophic consequences. Restarting production would take a considerable amount of time, especially in the event of expected vandalism at the field, and prove very costly. The shutdown will also result in the closure of the El-Feel field, which is dependent on Sharara for electricity supply. Crude supply used by the Zawiya refinery would also cease.

NOC calls on all patriots in the southern region and throughout Libya to intervene immediately in order to prevent this national disaster; caused by a group of outlaws in order to achieve personal gain through the exploitation of the suffering of our people in the south.

Original source: http://noc.ly/index.php/en/new-4/4289-pfg-threatens-local-workers-and-attempts-to-forcibly-shut-down-sharara-production