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By Dave Forest - Aug 08, 2017, 10:30 AM CDT

More drama in embattled oil producer Libya this week. With reports suggesting the countrys largest oil field has once again been endangered by local fighting.

Reuters reported early Monday that production at the Sharara field was grinding to a halt. With local sources saying that a key control room at the facility had been shut down.

The reason for the closure wasnt immediately clear. But Reuters did cite persons familiar with the situation as saying that an armed group had taken action against the facility potentially resulting in the shutdown.

At the time, sources said that Shararas output was likely to decline to zero due to the problems at the control room. But reports emergedlater in the daysaying the problem had been fixed, and that production was now returning to normal.

Those reports confirmed that an armed group had been involved in action against the infrastructure here. With Libyas National Oil Company saying, The armed protesters were evacuated from the control room, pumping returned to its natural level and production is being restored.

All of whichis potentially critical news for the global crude market. With Sharara being the biggest part of Libyas recently-surging oil production putting out 270,000 barrels per day of Libyas total 1 million b/d output. Related:Barclays: Oil Prices To Drop This Quarter

It looks as if problems here have been averted for the time being. But these events show things are still tenuous in Libyas oil sector evidenced by the fact an armed group was able to take over one of the countrys key installations, even briefly.

If ongoing problems do present here, it could put a significant dent in crude supplies giving support to the oil price. Watch for reports on any new issues over the coming weeks and months.

Heres to a smooth return.

By Dave Forest

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Oil Prices Fall As Libya's Biggest Oil Field Comes Back Online - OilPrice.com

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Oil prices fell as much as 2 percent on Monday on selling triggered by a rebound in production from Libya's largest oil field, along with worries about higher output from OPEC and the United States.

Output at Libya's Sharara field was returning to normal after a brief disruption by armed protesters in the coastal city of Zawiya, the National Oil Corporation (NOC) said. The field has boosted Libya's oil production, which climbed to more than 1 million bpd in late June.

Global benchmark Brent crude futures LCOc1 were down 26 cents, or 0.5 percent, at $52.16 a barrel at 2:05 p.m. EDT (1805 GMT) after trading as low as $51.37 a barrel

U.S. crude futures CLc1 were down 34 cents, or 0.7 percent, at $49.24 per barrel, after seeing a low of $48.54 a barrel.

Both contracts stood below levels hit last week, which marked their highest since late May.

Doubts have emerged about the effectiveness of output cuts by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and other big producers including Russia. OPEC output hit a 2017 high in July and its exports hit a record.

"The petroleum markets are tipping toward the lower end of their recent trading range as oil producers meeting in Abu Dhabi have been slow to assure the market that compliance with this years production cuts will be improved, although we continue to note that adherence to the limits has actually been quite strong by historical standards," Tim Evans, Citi Futures' energy futures specialist, said in a note.

"The recent increase in OPEC production has mostly been a function of recovering volumes from Libya and Nigeria."

Officials from a joint OPEC and non-OPEC technical committee are meeting in Abu Dhabi on Monday and Tuesday to discuss ways to boost compliance with the deal to cut 1.8 million barrels per day in production.

Oil output in the United States remained high even though Baker Hughes data on Friday showed a cut of one drilling rig in the week to Aug. 4, bringing the U.S. rig count down to 765. RIG-OL-USA-BHI

U.S. weekly oil production hit 9.43 million bpd in the week to July 28, the highest since August 2015 and up 12 percent from its most recent low in June last year. C-OUT-T-EIA Morgan Stanley said in a note on Monday it expects to see U.S. oil production growing by 900,000 bpd in the fourth quarter versus a year earlier, up from a forecast of 860,000 bpd earlier.

Some analysts expected OPEC could talk up prices.

"Saudi Arabia will restate that they will export only 6.6 million bpd (six-year low) in August and inventories will continue to draw down," SEB Markets chief commodities analyst Bjarne Schieldrop said.

On the global demand side, Goldman Sachs said data available so far for June points to continued strong growth.

"We believe that the biggest driver for this robust demand is strong economic growth in recent months," Goldman said in a note.

Additional reporting by Libby George in London, Jane Chung in Seoul and Henning Gloystein in Singapore; Editing by Jane Merriman, David Gregorio and Frances Kerry

Read the rest here:
Oil slides as output rises at Libya's largest oil field - Reuters

Conakry On 3 August, 132 Guinean migrants, including six unaccompanied children, returned voluntarily to Guinea from Libya with the support of IOM, the UN Migration Agency, in collaboration with Guinean and Libyan authorities.

William Lacy Swing, IOM Director General, who was in Libya at the time, saw them off at Tripolis Mitiga Airport on Thursday. The returnees arrived in Conakry that same evening.

Many of these migrants just really want to go home, said Ambassador Swing from the airport tarmac. We have voluntarily returned nearly 6,000 people so far this year and we hope to have helped at least 12,00015,000 migrants get home safely from Libya through voluntary humanitarian return assistance by the end of 2017.

Prior to departure, IOM Libya conducted interviews and medical checkups with the migrants. They also received additional assistance, such as kits containing clothes and shoes.

At Conakry airport, the returnees were welcomed by teams from IOM, the National Service for Humanitarian Actions (SENAH), the Red Cross, representatives of the Ministry in charge of Guineans Living Abroad, and of the Ministry of Social Affairs. Apart from providing psychosocial support, IOM interviewed the returnees to obtain deeper insight into the profile of irregular migrants why they left their country, their migratory pathway and living conditions in Libya. Among the migrants assisted, three patients received medical assistance from the Red Cross upon arrival at Conakry. The three were then transferred by ambulance to a medical facility in a special unit prepared for returning migrants.

Further support will be provided as part of the IOM programme, Enhancement of Migration Governance and Support for the Sustainable Reintegration of Migrants in the Republic of Guinea funded by the European Union.

Several returnees were interviewed, including Habib*, who had been working as a tailor in Libya for the last five years and owned a sewing workshop with his two brothers. He recounted how a police officer came over one day and asked him to adjust a uniform that was too large. The outfit was so large that Habib explained to him it was impossible. The officer lost his temper, stabbed Habib and ordered his imprisonment.

Amadou* left for Italy in one of five boats that set sail at the same time. Once they entered international waters, they were intercepted and captured by robbers/bandits. The sea was so rough that one of the boats capsized and sank with roughly 150 persons on board, most of whom were Guineans.

Mamadou* (14 years old) had left Bok several months earlier with money from a motor bike he had sold. His family had thought he was dead but some Guinean returning migrants told them he was at the Ghryian detention centre. IOM teams in Guinea and Libya joined efforts to locate and identify Mamadou. His family recognized him from a photograph taken by IOM at the detention centre. His elder brother came to meet him at the airport.

From 1 January to 19 July, IOM helped 5,546 migrants, 17 per cent of whom were women, return from Libya to their countries of origin. Three-quarters of these returnees had been held in detention centres. 2,221 were eligible for reintegration assistance. So far since January 2017, IOM has organized six flights of this nature from Libya to Guinea. These numbers of people returning add to other Guinean returnees from Benin, Cameroon, Egypt, Morocco and Niger.

The programme, Enhancement of Migration Governance and Support for the Sustainable Reintegration of Migrants in the Republic of Guinea was launched in April 2017 for a three-year period covering six administrative regions of Guinea: Conakry, Bok, Mamou, Lab, Kankan and NZrkor. Under this project, IOM Guinea will support returning migrants, depending on their profiles and needs, by facilitating the creation of a small business, involving them in a collective and/or community business initiative, or providing them with vocational training.

*The names of the migrants have been changed to protect their privacy.

For more information, please contact Lucas Chandellier, at IOM Guinea, Tel: +224 628 33 86 53, E-mail: lchandellier@iom.int

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132 Guinean Migrants Return Home Safely from Libya with UN Migration Agency Help - ReliefWeb

The Libyan coastguard recovered more than 1000 migrants floating in wooden and rubber boats in the Mediterranean Sea over the past few days and returned them to the Libyan coast.

Since Friday, 1124 people have been saved, the International Organization for Migration said on Monday.

The Italian government decided in July to launch a naval mission providing technical and logistical support to the Libyan coastguard, a move seen as a potential game changer in Europe's quest to stop sea migration from North Africa.

In the latest rescue mission, 155 people, including 18 women and 10 children, were rescued on Monday morning near the capital city of Tripoli.

The migrants came from several countries, including Morocco, Tunisia, Algeria and Sudan as well as sub-Saharan Africa and Syria, according to Italian media reports.

Libya has been in disarray since the NATO-backed ouster of former leader Muammar Gaddafi in 2011. Lawlessness in the former Italian colony has been a major factor in fuelling the migrant trafficking trade.

Around 114,000 migrants have landed in southern Europe since the start of the year, and about 82 per cent ended up in Italy, according to data from the IOM last month. Nearly all of them set sail from Libya.

See the article here:
More than 1000 migrants sent back to Libya - NEWS.com.au

BENGHAZI, Libya/TUNIS (Reuters) - Residents of Derna in east Libya say they are facing critical shortages after Khalifa Haftar's Libyan National Army (LNA) tightened its longstanding siege around the city last week.

Haftar's eastern-based LNA, one of a number of factions that have vied for power in Libya since a 2011 uprising ended Muammar Gaddafi's four-decade rule, is waging a military campaign against a coalition of Islamist militants and ex-rebels known as the Derna Mujahideen Shura Council (DMSC) that controls Derna.

Attention has shifted to the coastal city after Haftar announced victory in a three-year military campaign against a similar coalition in Benghazi, 350 km (210 miles) to the west, a month ago.

The LNA launches occasional air strikes over Derna and at the end of July, one of its fighter jets was shot down. The pilot was killed. The LNA subsequently reinforced its siege.

"The situation is extremely bad. Everything is stopped, the supplies are depleted and nothing is getting into the city," one resident told Reuters by telephone.

"There is a total blockade with no entry or exit. They only allow you to leave as a displaced person."

Another resident said most bakeries had closed because of a shortage of fuel, and that petrol stations had been shut for eight months. There was an acute shortage of medicine, he said, though some oxygen tanks were delivered to a hospital in Derna on Monday.

The United Nations humanitarian coordinator for Libya has expressed concern over reports of "severe shortages of basic necessities, including life saving medical supplies" in Derna, while the U.N.-backed Government of National Accord (GNA) in Tripoli called on all sides to "facilitate ways to provide for all the needs of the citizens".

The LNA is aligned with a parliament and government based in the eastern Libya that has spurned the GNA.

Haftar and the head of the GNA met in Paris in late July amid efforts to broker a peace settlement for Libya. A ceasefire was announced, though it excluded "counter-terrorism" operations. The LNA commonly brands its rivals as terrorists.

Derna has a history of militancy. It was occupied by Islamic State militants in late 2014, but they were later ousted by the DMSC. Since then, forces loyal to the LNA have bolstered their blockade. Supplies of food, cash and medicine were disrupted or confiscated even before the latest tightening of the siege.

The LNA says it has been hitting militant targets that it has identified on the outskirts of in Derna, including ammunition stores. It says it is preparing to use further strikes if peace efforts with local leaders fail.

In May, the city was also a target of Egyptian air strikes. Egypt said it was responding to an attack against Coptic Christians on its territory, though that attack was claimed by Islamic State.

Haftar, a figure many believe is seeking national power in Libya, has enjoyed strong backing from Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, as well as the United Arab Emirates.

Western envoys have met Haftar frequently in recent months, and say he has to be part of any solution to Libya's conflict.

Additional reporting by Ahmed Elumami; Writing by Aidan Lewis; Editing by Robin Pomeroy

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East Libyan city suffers as military forces tighten siege - Reuters