BENGHAZI, Libya (Reuters) - Eastern Libyan military forces have full control of Libya’s biggest oilfield, El Sharara, a spokesman said, in a challenge to the internationally recognized government in Tripoli.

FILE PHOTO: Pipes are pictured at the El Sharara oilfield December 3, 2014. REUTERS/Ismail Zitouny/File Photo

There was no immediate confirmation or comment from state oil firm NOC which operates with foreign partners the 315,000 barrels-per-day (bpd) field deep in Libya’s southern desert.

LNA (the Libyan National Army) based in eastern Libya began an offensive in the south last month to fight militants and secure oilfields.

Last Wednesday, the LNA reached a remote pumping station of El Sharara, but had until now not moved on the main field, which a force of state guards and tribesmen seized in December demanding funds. Production stopped then.

“Peacefully with no resistance LNA has full control over Sharara oilfield with all its facilities,” the LNA spokesman said on Twitter, adding the facility was being secured.

Pictures posted online showed jubilant soldiers standing in front of an El Sharara signpost. Reuters was unable to reach workers at the field for further information.

Hours earlier, the LNA’s chief of staff, Abdel-Razeq Nathouri, told Reuters the soldiers were negotiating access to the field.

The internationally recognized government in Tripoli had tried sending its own commander, Ali Kennah, to secure the field. El Sharara had formally belonged to the Tripoli administration which in reality had been unable to exercise control.

Kennah had flown on the weekend to the nearby El Feel oilfield and later made it to El Sharara, but failed to take control of it, oil workers have said.

Oil production in Libya, a member of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, has been disrupted since conflict broke out in 2011, with protesters and armed groups often targeting oilfields and energy infrastructure.

National production stands at under 1 million bpd, well below pre-2011 capacity of 1.6 million bpd.</s>(Hatha al-Youm | Iraq News )-Eastern Libyan forces loyal to commander Khalifa Haftar carried out four air strikes near the El Feel oilfield as a warning to a rival commander, a field engineer said on Saturday.It was the first military action by the eastern army since it banned all flights in southern Libya without its authorization on Friday.The strikes were directed at commander Ali Kennah, who was inside the compound at the time, the engineer told Reuters. Kennah is allied to the internationally recognized Tripoli government, while Haftar backs a parallel administration in the east.The fractured political climate has caused significant disruption to the country's oil industry.The Tripoli Government of National Accord (GNA), backed by the United Nations, said in a statement that the strike targeted a civilian plane that was trying to evacuate a number of wounded people from the oilfield to Tripoli.The strikes damaged the oilfield's infrastructure and its airport runway and "put civilian lives at risk", the statement added, without adding details of any casualties.State oil firm NOC, which runs the El Feel field with foreign partners, could not be immediately reached for comment.Haftar is a dominant figure in eastern Libya where his Libyan National Army group seized the second-largest city of Benghazi in 2017 by expelling Islamists and other fighters.Last month, his forces started an offensive in the south to fight militants and secure its oilfields, and on Wednesday made good on the promise by moving on the closed El Sharara field.His forces have occupied a pumping station some 20 km (12 miles) from the main El Sharara field but not the rest of the 315,000 barrels a day site, according to a field engineer.The El Feel field is located in the same southwestern region and is still producing crude, usually around 70,000 barrels a day.El Sharara was shut in December after tribesmen and state guards seized it.Kennah, the commander of the Sabha military zone who served under former dictator Muammar Gaddafi, was appointed by Prime Minister Fayez Seraj last week. Fayez leads the GNA.</s>BENGHAZI, Libya (Reuters) - Forces belonging to the internationally-recognized government of Libya reached the El Sharara oil field on Sunday, a Tripoli-based government source said.

The North African nation's biggest field is a focus of the conflict between the Tripoli-based government and a rival administration based in eastern Libya.

Separately, an eastern Libyan military plane intercepted on Sunday a civilian plane after it took off from the El Feel oilfield, forcing it to land in the southern region of Sebha, said a source from the eastern-based armed forces.

Both fields are located in southern Libya.</s>BENGHAZI, Libya (Reuters) - A jet from Khalifa Haftar’s east Libyan military forces intercepted a civilian plane on Sunday as part of its push to control the oil-rich south of the riven nation, the faction said.

Libya has been in turmoil since the NATO-backed toppling of Muammar Gaddafi in 2011, with parallel administrations and armed groups carving the nation into swathes of control.

Haftar’s Libyan National Army (LNA) began an offensive in the south last month to fight militants and take control of oil installations, and this week banned flights without its permission.

In a statement, the LNA said it scrambled a jet after a plane took off from the El Feel oilfield without permission, and forced it to land near Sabha, the largest town in south Libya.

It was allowed to continue to Tripoli, seat of the internationally-recognised government, after inspection.

The Tripoli government protested against the interception, saying the Libyan Airlines plane was carrying oil workers.

The LNA, which is allied to a parallel government in the eastern city of Benghazi, wants to secure the El Sharara oilfield, Libya’s largest, and occupied a pumping station 20km (12 miles) away on Wednesday, according to a field engineer.

The Tripoli government, striving to reassert its former control of El Sharara, has sent troops there, a source from the administration said.

El Sharara has been shut since December when local tribesmen and state guards seized it.</s>BENGHAZI, Libya (AP) — Libyan forces from the country’s east say they have taken control of the southern Sharara oil field, part of an expansion of Gen. Khalifa Hifter’s control over Libya’s main revenue generator.…

BENGHAZI, Libya (AP) — Libyan forces from the country’s east say they have taken control of the southern Sharara oil field, part of an expansion of Gen. Khalifa Hifter’s control over Libya’s main revenue generator.

In a statement late Wednesday, Ahmed Mesmari, spokesman for the self-styled Libyan National Army under Hifter’s command, says the move was taken in order to provide security to an area that was previously lawless.

He says the move was made in collaboration with local tribes, and grievances over salaries would be addressed.

Libya is governed by rival authorities in Tripoli and the country’s east, each of which is backed by an array of militias. Hifter heads the eastern faction.

Copyright © 2019 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, written or redistributed.</s>The North African nation's biggest field is a focus of the conflict between the Tripoli-based government and a rival administration based in eastern Libya.

Separately, an eastern Libyan military plane intercepted on Sunday a civilian plane after it took off from the El Feel oilfield, forcing it to land in the southern region of Sebha, said a source from the eastern-based armed forces.

Both fields are located in southern Libya.</s>TRIPOLI. (Reuters) - Libyan authorities have arrested a suspected al Qaeda leader who fled from the eastern city of Derna, once a jihadist bastion, a source in the attorney general's office said on Friday.

Abdel Qader Azuz was arrested in the western city of Misrata and then brought to the capital, Tripoli, the source said. No other details were immediately available.

Azuz was one of the top militants in Derna, according to Libyan officials. The city has been long a hotpot for Islamist militants. Many had fled Libya to escape persecution by Muammar Gaddafi and to fight in Afghanistan, then returned home after the dictator was toppled in 2011.

Eastern military forces allied to Khalifa Haftar, which control eastern Libya, have seized much of Derna in an ongoing military campaign that officials say is almost over.

It was not clear whether Libyan authorities had been assisted by the United States, which has several times snatched militants from Libya or given assistance to local authorities.The arrest came after U.S. charge d'affaires for Libya, Peter Bodde, who is based in Tunis, visited Misrata last week.
The Libyan Tobruk-based government has full control of the El Sharara oil field, the largest oilfield in Libya, after it was captured by the Libyan National Army. The oilfield, which was formerly under the control of Tripoli-based Government of National Accord, was taken over by local tribesmen in December 2018.