Libya’s NOC says it may have to suspend throughputs at the 120,000 b/d Zawiya refinery west of Tripoli, the country’s only operating plant, due to frequent recent breaches of security. “The most serious was a 2 October attack on refinery employees resulting in one employee being kidnapped (later released) and company cars and personal property stolen,” NOC says, adding that “More recently, on 10 October a group of gunmen mounted an assault on the refinery, attacking industrial security personnel in an attempt to break open the oil mixing facility for personal gain - stealing a company vehicle in the process.”
These “criminal incidents have occurred in spite of the presence of the PFG,” NOC says, in reference to the Petroleum Facilities Guard, a grouping of ex-militia ostensibly charged with protecting the country’s oil facilities but which NOC has frequently accused of violence and extortion (MEES, 29 January 2016). (CONTINUED - 234 WORDS)