© Reuters / Ismail Zitouny
The company is worried about the safety of its employees and the possibility staff might leave the extraction sites after repeated armed attacks. NOC wants the country's Defense Ministry to protect the oil pumping facilities.
"If these incidents continue, National Oil Corp will regrettably be forced to stop all operations at all fields in order to preserve the lives of employees," the company warned on its website.
There have been increasing attacks on Libya's oil facilities by armed groups, and the violence reached its peak last week. On Saturday a bomb exploded at a pipeline carrying crude from the country's largest oilfield El Sarir, following Friday's attacks on the nearby Makruk and Bahi oil fields. Nine guards were killed and three workers were taken hostage in an attack on Mabruk earlier this month.
#Map Libya oil and natural gas infrastructure http://t.co/KIbh7odNgS pic.twitter.com/5YUadOlDDG— Emrah Usta (@Emr_Usta) February 16, 2015Various militant groups are tearing Libya apart in the worst wave of violence since the 2011 uprising that overthrew the country's leader Muammar Gaddafi. Two de-facto governments are currently acting in the country.
Libya, a member of OPEC, which has Africa's largest proven oil reserves at about 48 billion barrels, was exporting 1.6 million barrels per day before Gaddafi was overthrown. Since then oil production fell from an average of just 430,000 barrels per day in 2014 to an average of 350,000 barrels per day in January 2015.
Brent crude finished last week up 7 percent and up 32 percent from its lowest point this year in mid-January at $61.52 a barrel due to the news from Libya.
So many people have NO idea how good it was in Libya - free electricity, subsidised cars, free medical treatment and education (to the highest levers, overseas if required), $50,000 grant for newly weds towards their first apartment - it goes on and on. Libyan citizens even got a monthly cheque for their share of the oil profits. He was genuinely loved by everyone but paid outside "Rebels", as evidenced by a video of him in an impromptu tour through the streets with him standing in the sunroof of a car, no security and people in the streets cheering as soon as the recognise him.
Libya is a perfect example of the countries the Israel need destroyed me cause they are viable, secular states. Peope don't understand that total destruction was the intention, not "Regime change" just destruction.