The United Arab Emirates proceeded with safeguards to prevent further conflict as they wish to see Libya’s oil production return. As Libya has been in civil wars since 2015, divided by areas with internationally acknowledged Government of National Accord (GNA) in Tripoli, also backed by Turkey, and the other area controlled by rival administration in Benghazi, tied to the Libyan National Army (LNA) and backed by the United Arab Emirates, Egypt and Russia.
United Arab Emirates Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, Anwar Gargash, had got direct accusations by Libya’s National Oil Corp (NOC), but he did not address or mention it. The NOC accused UAE as they had instructed forces to reimpose an oil export blockade. Oilfields and export facilities are mostly located in LNA territory with its eastern commander Khalifa Haftar, but since international agreement imposed that oil can only be exported by internationally acknowledged government located in Tripoli and payments only going through the central bank, the export automatically halted.
Turkey’s backing has helped the GNA to chase away the LNA from Tripoli and the northwest area. Further GNA advances to LNA areas would give chances to GNA taking over areas known as ‘oil crescent’. This region is where Libya and most of the OPEC members adjacent to their countries’ oil is produced and exported. The NOC resumed force majeure on oil exports after LNA said the blockade will continue, even though it allowed tankers loaded oil from storage.
The LNA insisted to keep the blockade until revenues from oil channeled to another bank account based overseas to be distributed regionally. They also asked for a few other conditions such as the establishment of a transparent mechanism to oversee public spending, and Tripoli-based central bank audit.
Gargash said that the UAE is now working on the truce in the near future, and returning to Libyan political process.
The production in the NOC’s Sharara oilfield has been tried to restart, but the effort was quickly shut down. The oil corporation also blamed on Russian mercenaries fighting alongside LNA have been deploying in the oilfield. Since Turkey helped GNA forces pressure the 14-month-old invasion on the capital Tripoli, Haftar’s LNA has been pushed back.
