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Intel: Russian mercenaries enter key oil field, Libya oil company says

A convoy of Russian mercenaries entered Libya’s Sharara oil field and met with the facility’s security forces yesterday, the country’s National Oil Corporation said.
Pipes are pictured at Libya's El Sharara oilfield December 3, 2014. Deep in Libya's southern Sahara, men in army uniforms guard a pipeline at the El Sharara oilfield. Hundreds of kilometers to the north, rival fighters turn off the pumps to stop the oil flowing. The standoff over El Sharara illustrates the complex challenge United Nations mediators face in holding together a country heading towards a civil war between factions allied with rival cities scrambling for control. U.N. envoys plan to bring the Li

A convoy of Russian mercenaries entered Libya’s Sharara oil field and met with the facility’s security forces yesterday, the country’s National Oil Corporation (NOC) said. The meeting comes as oil from the country’s major fields, under the influence of military strongman Khalifa Hifter, are shut down.

The United Nations-backed Government of National Accord (GNA) was hoping for a restart pumping at Sharara, which is located in Libya’s southwest, as the GNA broke out from Tripoli in recent months. The NOC blamed Hifter-aligned forces earlier this month for preventing Sharara from coming back online.

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