Libya’s National Oil Corporation (NOC) announced on Friday that it had halted crude oil pumping from the Hamada fields to the Zawiya refinery after an armed group shut a valve on the main pipeline, a move that caused a sharp pressure spike and prompted a safety shutdown, the NOC said.
Confirmed events
Xinhua reported that the abrupt closure of the pipeline had forced technical teams to cease pumping in order to protect the refinery’s safety. It warned that continued blockage could result in the loss of about 15,000 barrels of crude per day, and called on relevant authorities to reopen the valve immediately, urging measures to safeguard the facility from future attacks.
The same Xinhua story added that the pipeline carries crude from the northwestern inland Hamada fields to the Zawiya refinery on Libya’s northwest coast, west of Tripoli.
A search result from eight hours earlier indicated that the incident marked the second time this month that oil flows to Zawiya had been halted by an armed group, underscoring a pattern of recurring disruptions.
Unconfirmed reports
A separate brief note cited a head of the National Oil Corporation saying, according to Reuters, that the valve had been shut by armed groups, but no direct quote or further confirmation is available from the source.
No additional independent verification of details beyond the stated NOC statement and the Xinhua report has been provided.
