The political complexities of Libya’s oil industry were highlighted at the weekend when allies of the warlord Khalifa Haftar were said to have tried to shut down a Spanish-operated oilfield in reprisal for an arrest warrant issued by Spain for his son over alleged weapons smuggling.
Saddam Haftar, a key military figure in his father’s self-styled Libyan National Army (LNA), was detained at an airport in Naples, Italy, for an hour on Friday after his name appeared on a common EU database. Those close to Haftar say he was questioned by Italian officials in relation to Spanish allegations, but insist he was never arrested.
Output from El Sharara oilfield slowed over the weekend. It is one of Libya’s largest fields and is capable of producing more than 300,000 barrels a day. Libya’s UN-backed government, which is in opposition to Haftar, called the move “political extortion” without elaborating further.
The Haftar forces, who control the east and south of Libya where most of the oilfields are located, denied the attempted closure of El Sharara was due to political retribution, but rather claimed the site was suffering from recurring problems related to the conditions to which the workers were exposed.
Libya’s National Oil Corporation said on Tuesday it would gradually decrease production at the oilfield, citing protests in the area.
The head of the Fezzan movement, a local protest group that has previously shut down the oilfield, insisted it had nothing to do with the shutdown attempt. “Saddam Haftar gave immediate instructions by telephone and without the use of military force to shut down the site in response to the attempt to arrest him last Friday in Italy, on the basis of an arrest warrant issued against him in Spain,” said Bashir al-Sheikh. “I have nothing to do with the closure of the field and I refuse to be accused of this.”
The Barcelona-based newspaper Crónica Global has reported that the warrant was issued over the seizure by Spanish police a year ago of military equipment and weapons destined for the United Arab Emirates but allegedly intended to be diverted to eastern Libya.
Haftar has not commented on the police seizure, and attempts by the Guardian to contact the LNA were unsuccessful.
There is a UN weapons import ban on Libya, but it is sporadically enforced. Italy recently blocked a consignment of arms bound from China for Haftar.
The latest episode appears to show how some in Libya’s political leadership can use the threat of oil shutdowns to enforce their personal and political agenda.
Libya has suffered from a political division between east and west since elections in 2014 after the fall of Muammar Gaddafi. Successive UN special envoys have been unable to resolve the impasse – partly because the political elite on both sides have benefited from the status quo.
The oil-rich country has been locked in an absurd position whereby it has to import most of its fuel, which is then sold domestically at subsidised prices. The practice is not only hugely expensive, but encourages smugglers to sell the subsidised fuel back into European markets at a profit.
El Sharara oilfield is located in the Murzuq desert, in southern Libya, a poor region of the country that has been under the control of Haftar and his forces for years.
The last UN special envoy to Libya, Abdoulaye Bathily, said the country was becoming a mafia state dominated by gangs involved in smuggling operations. Bathily added that it had become an open supermarket for arms, used for internal political competition and also sold beyond its borders.
Repeated proclamations by politicians in east and west Libya that they are only a few technical steps from agreeing to hold national presidential elections, or are poised to form a unity government, have proven false.
Haftar has increasingly close links to Russia. According to an Atlantic Council report, Libya now “serves as the crucial hub for Moscow’s mission in Africa due to its geographical location and political instability”.
Strategically positioned at the crossroads of Africa and Europe, Libya provides Moscow with a gateway to Russian operations in Sudan, Chad, Niger and other Sahel and central African countries, eventually projecting power and influence across these regions, the US thinktank’s report said.
The UK ambassador to Libya, Martin Longdon, has expressed concern about growing Russian influence.
Nicholas Soames, a former Conservative MP who is now a peer, has been one of the few British politicians to note Haftar’s importance to Russia, saying last week that the west “needed to wake up to the political games” being played by Vladimir Putin in Libya.
“This new friendship has not only enabled him to flow his mercenary forces into the country and beyond, destabilising much of sub-Saharan Africa in the process, but it has also allowed discussions to begin on a new Russian nuclear submarine base to be constructed in the Libyan port of Tobruk,” he wrote.
“To my mind, this evokes a Cuban missile crisis scenario, only this time with Europe in the crosshairs and the Mediterranean Sea a possible new battleground for western Europe … Whilst Ukraine is important and needs our full support, we cannot think that Putin has only a single military campaign in mind.”
