An oil tanker at the Libyan oil port of Ras Lanuf has been forced to flee into the water to avoid being caught up in heavy fighting over the weekend, as a pair of ports were attacked by forces loyal to the Libyan unity government, aiming to reclaim the ports.
These oil ports had been under the control of the unity government’s Petroleum Facilities Guard (PFG) until last weekend, when Gen. Khalifa Hifter’s forces, loyal to the rival Tobruk Parliament, attacked and captured the important oil ports.
The PFG is meant to defend facilities from being overrun like this, but many of them had been repurposed by the unity government into a makeshift offensive force, which has been trying to capture the city of Sirte from ISIS. Short-handed, the guard was unable to fend off the well-armed Libyan National Army for long.
And while the international community is urging Hifter to cede the ports back, so far he’s refused to do so, and his forces managed to repel this weekend’s counter-offensive. The fighting further reduces the amount of oil Libya is able to export, adding to economic struggles that have been constant since the NATO-imposed regime change, as no faction seems to be able to control the entire oil apparatus for any measurable span of time.
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I have to bet the people in Libya wish thy had Qaddafi back.
Hefter was CIA employee for 20 years in Northern Virginia. The port authority was sucked into being fighting force against ourposefully brought in ISIS — and weakened now are under the Tobruk control. And how did Hefter get there and with whose forces. All that to sideline and deprive of revenue the go t in Tripoli. But then somebody else wkll change sides. For now, Hefter has Gadhafi son and a daughter singing CIA tune. Nuse is tightening on oil of Libya. What if Ttipoli and thoroughly outplayed Benghazi get together again and Fez joins in? Typical imperial cockedness.