Libya reopens strike-hit oil port as UN convenes talks
TRIPOLI: Libya reopened its oil port of Hariga on Tuesday, ending a strike by guards that had threatened to further slash exports as rival factions fight for control of the OPEC country.
The threat to shut down Hariga underlined the fragility of oil shipments as two competing governments and their armed allies are locked in a scramble for territory and petroleum wealth.
Hariga reopened shortly before the United Nations was expected to hold talks to prevent a wider conflict that Western governments fear will turn Libya into a failed state just across the Mediterranean from Europe.
Libya shut most operations at the Hariga terminal near Egypt's border, the last functioning land oil export terminal, on Saturday after security guards prevented a tanker from docking in a protest over wage payments.
"An oil tanker was supposed to dock at the port this morning, but the weather was against this. We will wait until the weather allows us to go ahead," said Omran Al-Zwie, a spokesman for the company operating Hariga.
The North African country's two largest oil ports, Es Sider and Ras Lanuf, with a combined capacity of around 600,000 barrels per day, have been closed by fighting between the two loose confederations of armed factions since December.
Nearly four years after civil war toppled veteran leader Muammar Gaddafi, Libya is caught in struggle between an internationally recognised government and a rival administration set up in Tripoli after an armed faction known as Libya Dawn took over the capital in the summer.
Each faction claims legitimacy and is backed by brigades of former rebels who once fought Gaddafi, but steadily turned on one another in internecine warfare.
Underlining the scale of the crisis, the International Energy Agency said on Tuesday Libya's oil production fell by 100,000 bpd in January to 340,000 bpd. Before the 2011 civil war, it produced around 1.6 million bpd.
The United Nations last month began a new round of talks in Geneva, which brought some of the warring factions together to discuss a unity government and a ceasefire.
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Libya reopens strike-hit oil port as UN convenes talks