On Sunday, Deputy Prime Minister of the Government of National Accord (GNA), Ahmed Maiteeq, welcomed the resumption of oil output at the El-Sharara oilfield.
In a statement, Maiteeq welcomed all efforts made to alleviate the suffering of the Libyan citizens, the latest of which was the National Oil Corporation’s (NOC) lifting of the force majeure on the country’s largest oil field.
The GNA deputy PM described the NOC’s decision as positive step towards the lifting of the force majeure on the rest of the oilfields and ports currently inoperative.
The National Oil Corporation said it lifted the force majeure imposed at the southwestern El-Sharara oil field after reaching “an honour agreement” with forces loyal to the commander of the Libyan National Army (LNA), Field Marshal Khalifa Haftar, to end “all obstructions” at the field.
Libya’s prized light crude has long featured in the North African country’s civil war, with rival militias and foreign powers jostling for control of Africa’s largest oil reserves.
Libya was plunged into chaos when a NATO-backed popular uprising in 2011 toppled long-time dictator Muammar Gaddafi, who was later killed. The country has since split between rival administrations based in the capital Tripoli and the eastern city of Benghazi.
Meanwhile, representatives of the Benghazi-based Parliament and Tripoli-based High Council of State started, on Sunday, a three-day-long UN-facilitated dialogue in the Egyptian capital of Cairo, the UN support mission in Libya reported.
UNSMIL said the delegations are expected to discuss “legal and constitutional options which may be put forward in the Libyan Political Dialogue Forum.”