A worker checks pipes and valves at El Sharara oilfield December 3, 2014. Deep in Libya's southern Sahara, men in army uniforms guard a pipeline at the El Sharara oilfield. Hundreds of kilometers to the north, rival fighters turn off the pumps to stop the oil flowing. The standoff over El Sharara illustrates the complex challenge United Nations mediators face in holding together a country heading towards a civil war between factions allied with rival cities scrambling for control. U.N. envoys plan to bring the Libyan rivals together on Tuesday for a dialog, but the conflict is spreading with both sides increasingly at odds over the OPEC country's vast oil resources. Picture taken December 3, 2014. REUTERS/Ismail Zitouny (LIBYA - Tags: POLITICS ENERGY CIVIL UNREST) (Reuters)

A worker checks pipes and valves at El Sharara oilfield December 3, 2014. (File photo: Reuters)

Libya’s Sharara oil field shuts down only days after restarting

Libya

Reuters, Cairo

Published: 09 June ,2020: 01:12 PM GST Updated: 09 June ,2020: 01:26 PM GST

1 min read

Libya’s giant Sharara oilfield has been shut down again days after restarting following a long blockade, and efforts are under way to reopen it once more, an engineer at the field said on Tuesday.

Sources said the latest shutdown was caused by forces affiliated with Khalifa Haftar’s Libyan National Army (LNA), which blockaded most of Libya’s oil in January but have been on the retreat after their campaign to capture the capital, Tripoli, fell apart.

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