BENGHAZI: Suspected Daesh militants attacked oil installations close to Libya’s Ras Lanuf terminal on Thursday, an engineer at the port and energy officials said, and the group threatened more attacks.
The engineer said two storage tanks from the Harouge Oil Operations company had been set on fire near Ras Lanuf, where militants also launched attacks earlier this month.
Daesg fighter Abu Abdelrahman Al-Liby said in a video posted on the group’s official Telegram channel: “Today Es Sider port and Ras Lanuf and tomorrow the port of Brega and after the ports of Tobruk, Es Serir, Jallo, and Al-Kufra.”
The state-run National Oil Corporation (NOC) said the area was facing an “environmental catastrophe,” with huge columns of smoke covering the area and damage to power lines supplying residential and industrial districts.
An energy official allied with Libya’s eastern-based government, Mohamed Al-Manfi, said a pipeline leading from the Amal oil field to the Es Sider terminal had been targeted. There were clashes between militants and Petroleum Facilities Guards, but Manfi and a guards source later said these had stopped and the militants had retreated.
Libya oil installations hit
Updated 22 January 2016