Libya oil port shutdown drags on

A swift resolution to the blockade looks unlikely as fighting continues in Tripoli and the UN searches for a new mediator

Economic losses from the eight-week shutdown of Libya’s oil ports have passed $3bn and, with fighting raging in Tripoli and the resignation of the UN’s top mediator, the impasse looks likely to persist.  Five eastern ports and three key south-western oil fields were shut on 17 January on the orders of general Khalifa Haftar’s Libyan National Army (LNA), which is backed by both the eastern government in Tobruk and local tribal leaders.  The shutdown was in response to Ankara deploying Turkish troops and Syrian mercenaries to aid Tripoli’s Government of National Accord (GNA), which is defending the capital from an 11-month offensive by Haftar’s forces.  Crude production reported by Libya’s sta