Two Missing After Attack on Libya Oil Field
Attack is latest against Libya’s oil industry; national oil company pulls staff from 11 sites
By BENOÎT FAUCON And SEAN CARNEY
Wall Street Journal
March 7, 2015 4:25 p.m. ET
Two European citizens have gone missing from a Libyan oil field after a suspected terrorist attack, as the North African nation said it had pulled all staff in the area.
On Friday, suspected members of the extremist Islamic State attacked an oil field in central Libya, killing eight guards in the latest of a string of attacks.
A Czech citizen along with an Austrian, both working for international oil companies in Libya, have now gone missing from the facility, a Czech foreign ministry official said Saturday.
Unknown gunmen on Friday fired on the Ghani oil field Friday, located about 500 kilometers from Tripoli and run by a joint-venture with Suncor Energy Inc. of Canada. Czech Foreign Minister Lubomir Zaoralek told Czech state television on Saturday that the attackers were probably members of the local affiliate of the Islamic State organization.
The news comes after Libya’s state-run National Oil Co. said all personnel had left 11 fields that were under force majeure in Central Libya—a clause providing legal protection for disruptions.
The country, which is home to Africa’s largest oil reserves, has been mired in violence and political divisions since longtime dictator Moammar Gadhafi was killed in an uprising in 2011. A civil war has broken out between the internationally recognized government-based in the country’s east and a rebel faction known as Libya Dawn that controls the country’s capital of Tripoli.
Both sides have recently come under attack from the Libyan branch of Islamic State, an extremist militant movement that has overrun parts of Syria and Iraq.
The Islamic State has claimed attacks against Central Libya’s oil facilities in recent weeks as warring parties there have turned their sights on the country’s oil industry, once the lifeblood of its economy.
Libya is pumping about 500,000 barrels of crude oil a day, three times less than its peak output.
Write to Benoît Faucon at benoit.faucon@wsj.com and Sean Carney at sean.carney@wsj.com
By BENOÎT FAUCON And SEAN CARNEY
Wall Street Journal
March 7, 2015 4:25 p.m. ET
Two European citizens have gone missing from a Libyan oil field after a suspected terrorist attack, as the North African nation said it had pulled all staff in the area.
On Friday, suspected members of the extremist Islamic State attacked an oil field in central Libya, killing eight guards in the latest of a string of attacks.
A Czech citizen along with an Austrian, both working for international oil companies in Libya, have now gone missing from the facility, a Czech foreign ministry official said Saturday.
Unknown gunmen on Friday fired on the Ghani oil field Friday, located about 500 kilometers from Tripoli and run by a joint-venture with Suncor Energy Inc. of Canada. Czech Foreign Minister Lubomir Zaoralek told Czech state television on Saturday that the attackers were probably members of the local affiliate of the Islamic State organization.
The news comes after Libya’s state-run National Oil Co. said all personnel had left 11 fields that were under force majeure in Central Libya—a clause providing legal protection for disruptions.
The country, which is home to Africa’s largest oil reserves, has been mired in violence and political divisions since longtime dictator Moammar Gadhafi was killed in an uprising in 2011. A civil war has broken out between the internationally recognized government-based in the country’s east and a rebel faction known as Libya Dawn that controls the country’s capital of Tripoli.
Both sides have recently come under attack from the Libyan branch of Islamic State, an extremist militant movement that has overrun parts of Syria and Iraq.
The Islamic State has claimed attacks against Central Libya’s oil facilities in recent weeks as warring parties there have turned their sights on the country’s oil industry, once the lifeblood of its economy.
Libya is pumping about 500,000 barrels of crude oil a day, three times less than its peak output.
Write to Benoît Faucon at benoit.faucon@wsj.com and Sean Carney at sean.carney@wsj.com
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