European Union foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini was in Libya on Saturday to reopen the bloc’s diplomatic mission in Tripoli.
"The return of the diplomatic presence of the EU in Libya will further strengthen cooperation with the government, local authorities and the United Nations," the EU said in a statement.
Mogherini met the head of Government of National Accord Prime Minister Fayez al-Sarraj and Foreign Minister Mohamed al-Taher Siala, alongside the UN's envoy to Libya Ghassan Salameh, the EU said.
The EU relocated its Libya delegation to Tunisia's capital Tunis in 2014, as the country was mired into chaos after the 2011 uprising that toppled Moammar al-Gaddafi.
Rival Libyan leaders agreed to a French-brokered deal in May to hold elections by the end of this year, but skepticism remains high over whether a vote can take place.
Mogherini "restated the European Union's support for the Libyan political process, in the framework provided by the United Nations, including preparations for elections", the EU said.
Mogherini told Sarraj that she was "relieved" a recent oil crisis had been resolved, the GNA said in a statement.
Libya on Wednesday resumed exports from its eastern Oil Crescent, after shipments had been suspended for over two weeks, due to a standoff between the rival administrations.
Calm has not yet been completely restored in the North African country’s oil sector.
Two staff were abducted Saturday in an attack by an unknown group at the giant Sharara oil field, the National Oil Corporation (NOC) said. Production at the field was consequently expected to fall by at least 160,000 barrels per day (bpd).
The attack happened at a control station on the outskirts of Sharara, about 40 km (25 miles) from the main part of the field, engineers at the field said. One of the abducted workers was Romanian, they said.
NOC said it expected output to drop by 160,000 barrels per day (bpd), although one engineer said output at the field, which had been producing 200,000-300,000 bpd recently, had already dropped to below 100,000 bpd.
Tripoli-based NOC operates Sharara in partnership with Repsol, Total, OMV and Equinor, formerly known as Statoil.
The field, in Libya’s remote southwest, has suffered security problems in the past, including raids in which vehicles and mobile phones have been stolen.
The facility that was targeted on Saturday is called Station 186 and was also attacked last year.
The NOC said unknown armed assailants entered the station at 6.30 a.m. (4.30 GMT) on Saturday.
“Four of the station staff were initially kidnapped but two of them have been since released,” it said. “Oil wells in the surrounding area have been shut down as a precaution, and all other workers evacuated.”
In addition to being one of Libya’s main export grades, Sharara feeds the 120,000 bpd Zawiya oil refinery on the country’s northwest coast.
