Libya Oil Supply at Risk as Militia Divides Control of Ports
- Haftar militia hands five ports to East-based energy company
- West-based oil company objects; uncertainty rises for buyers
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Uncertainty about Libyan oil supplies intensified after a militia leader handed over control of some of the country’s biggest crude-exporting terminals to a rival of the Tripoli-based state oil company.
Forces loyal to Khalifa Haftar, a commander in the politically divided nation’s eastern region, turned over ports with a combined export capacity of 800,000 barrels a day to the National Oil Corp. in Benghazi, a city in the east. The transfer of ports including Es Sider, Libya’s biggest, threatened to unsettle markets just days after OPEC agreed to boost output.