Firefighters battle Zawiya refinery blaze after drone attacks

By Ayman al-Warfalli and Ahmed Elumami

TRIPOLI, Aug 11 (Reuters) - Libyan firefighters continued to battle a blaze at the Zawiya refinery complex on Tuesday, according to two engineers at the site, with state oil firm NOC saying it could declare force majeure if drone attacks on oil assets in the city continued.

The fire, although intense, has not caused any damage to Libya's largest operating refinery, the engineers told Reuters. Three officials at Brega Petroleum Marketing, which is in charge of Libya's ‌fuel supplies, told Reuters fuel and gasoline supplies had not been affected.

Libya's National Oil Corp (NOC) said earlier it could completely halt operations at Zawiya, which mostly supplies the domestic market, after reporting a third drone attack over the weekend and into Monday.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attacks and authorities did not say who they believed was behind them, but Libya has been divided between rival factions since the toppling of Muammar Gaddafi 15 years ago.

THIRD DRONE TARGETED OIL BLENDING PLANT

NOC said the third drone targeted on Monday an oil blending and filling plant operated by the Zawiya Oil Refining Company, falling near its main oil tank and a pipeline network used to produce oils for the domestic market. No casualties or material damage were reported.

The oil ministry said early on Tuesday an attack on the Zawiya complex had led a tank belonging to Brega that contained about 4.5 million litres of gasoline to catch fire and collapse.

It said the series of drone attacks had targeted a desalination plant in the Zawiya complex as well as the refinery.

An official at Brega told Reuters that the tanks adjacent to the one that was hit in Zawiya were emptied to prevent fire spreading, while cooling operations were conducted on the rest of the tanks.

LIBYA HAS AFRICA'S LARGEST OIL RESERVES

As a result of years of unrest, oil output in Libya has been repeatedly disrupted despite the country holding Africa's largest proven oil reserves.

The Zawiya area itself has seen repeated armed clashes that have at times forced its refinery to shut, most recently for several days in May.

The refinery is located around 40 km (25 miles) west of Tripoli and has a capacity of 120,000 barrels per day. It is connected to the country's 300,000-bpd Sharara oilfield.

The Ras Lanuf oil refinery, Libya's largest, has been idle since 2013.

Libya, whose economy relies heavily on oil, has been producing below its pre-2011 levels of 1.6 million bpd, but in June managed to reach 1.44 million bpd, the highest level since 2013.

(Reporting by Ayman al-Warfalli, Ahmed Elumami and Enas Alashray; Writing by Nayera Abdallah; Editing by Jan Harvey)