The National Oil Corporation (NOC) has announced that operations in the port of Zawiya could be halted and the refinery evacuated following recent attacks on the facilities. This could result the interruption of production also in the Sharara field, which exports its crude oil and its derivatives through Zawiya. On Saturday 28 December 2019, the sites adjacent to the oil storage areas managed by the Zawiya refinery were hit by airstrikes, the third attack near the plants in the past 48 hours.
NOC and its subsidiaries, including Akakus, Brega Petroleum Marketing Company (BPMC) and Zawiya Oil Refining Company, together with international partners, held emergency talks to assess the situation. The NOC President, Mustafa Sanalla, he has declared: "Stopping operations in Zawiya will reduce Libyan oil production by at least 300.000 barrels per day and mean that it may not be possible to refine fuel in the Zawiya refinery. This fuel will have to be imported instead, which will result in losses of hundreds of millions of dollars at a time when the Libyan economy is suffering".
He then stated: "We make every effort to maintain Libyan oil and gas production despite many challenges, but we cannot manage the facilities if there is a risk to the lives of our production teams and the local population. If the attacks don't stop, we will be forced to stop all operations and declare force majeure on exports from the port of Zawiya, including oil fields that pump to Zawiya, such as the Sharara oil field".
La National Oil Corporation in acronym NOC is the national oil company of Libya. Predominant in Libya's oil industry with a number of smaller subsidiaries owns half of the country's oil. The largest oil producer among its subsidiaries is Waha Oil Company (WOC) followed by Arabian Gulf Oil Company (Agoco), Zueitina Oil Company (ZOC), and Sirte Oil Company (SOC).