Libya’s oil war flares up

NOC’s plans to lift output are under threat after renewed fighting in the Sirte basin

After three months of peace, Libya’s oil war resumed on 7 December with fierce attacks on the country’s key oil ports, leaving questions over the future of an ambitious plan to keep lifting the country’s production. Militias based at Waddan, held by the Tripoli-based Government of National Accord (GNA), drove eastwards towards Es-Sider, the country’s largest oil port, held by forces loyal to the rival government, the House of Representatives (HoR) based in the eastern town of Tobruk. The fighting came three months after Tobruk’s Libyan National Army (LNA) commanded by powerful eastern general Khalifa Hafter seized the ports from the GNA, abruptly changing the country’s strategic balance – an