Production at Libya's El Feel and Wafa oilfields resumed after a halt on Tuesday, with state oil firm NOC saying protesters had stormed the Mellitah oil and gas complex and disrupted operations.
The Libyan government in Tripoli said in a statement that security forces regained control of the complex, a joint venture between NOC and Italy's Eni, and that gas supplies had resumed to power generation plants. Mellitah operates El Feel, which has a capacity of between 80,000 barrels per day and 90,000 bpd under normal circumstances. NOC said work also resumed at the offshore Sabratha platform. The company said in an earlier statement that production had completely halted at El Feel while partially stopping at Wafa, but had not mentioned the platform.
Libyan oil output has been subject to repeated closures for various political and technical reasons since the 2011 uprising against Muammar Gaddafi. NOC said in its earlier statement that disruption at the oilfields was a result of protesters storming and closing the Mellitah complex in the early hours of Tuesday.
The oil company added that the closure had caused a severe shortage in fuel and gas supplies required to operate power plants, and a number of generation units went out of service, raising the risk of a blackout. Libya's state electricity company said that the power grid was being gradually restored to normal after work resumed at the complex.
