Libya’s new oil chief on Friday lifted force majeure at all the country’s oil fields and export terminals as groups besieging several installations ended their blockade.
“The National Oil Corporation announces the lifting of force majeure at all fields and terminals from July 15,” NOC head Farhat Bengdara said in the eastern city of Benghazi.
Force majeure is a legal measure allowing companies to free themselves from contractual obligations in light of circumstances beyond their control.
Bengdara was speaking during an event attended by representatives of groups who had since mid-April blockaded six oil fields and export terminals over demands for a more “equitable distribution” of the country’s oil revenues.
During that time, oil production fell by 400,000 barrels of crude per day, down from one million bpd in March.
But on Friday, the groups said they were lifting the blockades after the new NOC chief “promised to satisfy all our demands, name an equitable distribution of oil revenues”.
“We have decided to reopen oil fields and oil terminals, to allow the resumption of production and exports,” they said in a statement.
In a decree made public on Wednesday, the unity government of Prime Minister Abdulhamid Dbeibah replaced veteran NOC head Mustafa Sanalla, appointing Bengdara as chief of the oil corporation.
A former central banker, Bengdara took up office at the NOC headquarters in Tripoli on Thursday, telling a news conference: “The oil sector has fallen prey to political struggles, but we will work to prevent political interference in the sector.”
Dbeibah’s move against Sanalla follows months of rising tensions in Libya after the country’s eastern-based parliament appointed a rival government, led by former interior minister Fathi Bashagha and seen as backed by military strongman Khalifa Haftar.