TRIPOLI, Libya: Operations at an oil refinery in the northern Libyan city of Zawiya resumed today after it was closed on Friday due to clashes near the facility, Anadolu Ajansi reported.
The resumption was announced in a statement by the Brega Petroleum Marketing Company, a subsidiary of the National Oil Corporation.
Petroleum products are now being supplied to distribution companies to meet local demand for fuel and related products, the statement said.
The city, nearly 50 kilometres west of the capital, Tripoli, saw hours-long clashes involving heavy weapons between rival armed groups.
The corporation had said the clashes resulted in “several heavy-weapon projectiles falling in different areas of the oil complex”.
The facility in Zawiya is a major oil complex in Libya. It refines crude oil, manufactures asphalt, blends and packages mineral oils, exports crude oil through the company’s oil terminal, and supplies some petroleum products for the local market.
The clashes are said to have stopped on Friday evening after mediation by local elders.
While official statements did not identify the parties involved, sources told Anadolu that the clashes took place in the South al-Harsha area of Zawiya, near the oil refinery, between a group led by Mohammed Bahroun, known as ‘Al-Far’, backed by other armed groups, and another armed group led by Salem Latif.
Libya remains divided between two rival administrations: the internationally recognised Government of National Unity in Tripoli, led by Abdul-Hamid Dbeibah, and an eastern-based administration appointed by the House of Representatives and headed by Osama Hammad in Benghazi. – BERNAMA-ANADOLU
