Crude production has stopped at a cluster of Libyan oil fields with combined capacity of around 10,000 b/d after an armed group forcibly closed a pipeline valve in the Hamada region.
State-owned NOC said a group from the Petroleum Facilities Guard (PFG), which is responsible for protecting oil infrastructure, illegally closed a valve on the pipeline linking the fields to the 120,000 b/d Zawia refinery.
The closure caused a sudden pressure surge in the pipeline, forcing the shutdown of the Agoco-operated Hamada and Tahara fields and the NC5 pumping station, NOC said.
The company also said "certain actors" had threatened to shut the 10,000 b/d North Hamada field, operated by its subsidiary Nafusah Oil.
"NOC announces that it may be compelled to declare force majeure should the valve remain closed or if other fields face similar forced shutdowns," it said.
The affected fields feed into a pipeline that also carries crude from the Repsol-led 300,000 b/d El Sharara field to Zawia. NOC made no mention of El Sharara in its statement, but the field has been affected by previous valve closures along the pipeline route.
A source said the Tripoli-based government of Abdelhamid Dbeibeh had sent representatives to negotiate with the PFG group, which is demanding that its members be formally incorporated into the state payroll.
Another source said the closure could be part of a broader power struggle between the Dbeibeh government in western Libya and the Haftar family, which controls eastern Libya.
Libya's oil facilities have suffered repeated politically driven closures since the 2011 civil war, although the country has experienced no major production outages since 2024. Crude production stood at 1.4mn b/d in August, according to Argus estimates.
