Libya’s National Oil Corporation (NOC) has announced that it has reopened the Wintershall operated Sara fields that had been shut down since November 2017.
‘‘After pressure from the National Oil Corporation and the Office of Public Prosecutor, the municipality of Jikharra has decided to reopen oil fields in its area shut at the beginning of November 2017’’, the NOC said in a statement on the reopening.
‘‘The unauthorized shut-down by operator Wintershall of the Sara fields in its NC-96 concession resulted in the loss of 4,400,000 barrels of production at a cost to the Libyan economy of $281,479,385’’, it explained.
‘‘The suspension of production by the company was done without the approval of the NOC as stipulated in the interim operating agreement between the parties’’..
“The restart is a humiliating setback for the parallel structure and for its campaign to shut down Libyan production in the Wahat region and beyond,” said NOC chairman Mustafa Sanalla.
“The Public Prosecutor will continue to investigate this crime. The perpetrators and others considering using the tactic should remember this is a very serious offence for which there is no statute of limitations.”, he concluded.
