Disruptions of oil facilities dissipate after negotiations

For close to three weeks, southern Libyan protesters managed to block production at the country’s largest oilfield, al-Sharara, thus dropping overall crude production by 20% to 950,000 barrels per day. On January 21st, negotiations finally satisfied protesters who ended their sit down, thus allowing the NOC to lift its case of force majeure on al-Sharara. As we examine in this article, this disruption could have broadened and is likely to be repeated in the future due to chronic underdevelopment of the Fezzan and politicking by key actors.