Libya’s National Oil Corporation announced Sunday the closure of production at a major oil field in the country’s south, declaring a “force majeure”.

“On Saturday… the Al-Fil field was subjected to arbitrary closure attempts, due to the entry of a group of individuals and the prevention of the field’s workers from continuing production,” the NOC said on Facebook.

It added that the field was shut down on Sunday — marking the second closure in a matter of weeks — “making it impossible for the NOC to implement its contractual obligations”.

The firm said it “is obliged to declare a state of force majeure” and would no longer be able to provide crude to the Mellitah complex on the country’s northwestern coast.

Declaring force majeure is a legal move allowing parties to free themselves from contractual obligations when factors such as fighting or natural disasters make meeting them impossible.

According to Libya’s state news agency, the closure comes after a group of individuals declared that they were halting production “until a government appointed by parliament takes office in the capital”.

Libya has recently once again found itself with two rival governments after the eastern-based parliament in February appointed a new prime minister in a direct challenge to the UN-brokered government in Tripoli.

The move underlines the extent of divisions in the war-wracked country as observers fear a renewed descent into violence.

Al-Fil, some 750 kilometres southwest of Tripoli, is jointly managed by the NOC and Italian energy giant ENI and produces around 70,000 barrels of oil per day.

The field had already been forced to close temporarily in early March when an armed group shut down valves delivering crude.

Oil revenues are vital to the economy of Libya, a country sitting on Africa’s largest known reserves. (AFP via Channels)

*PLS USE LIBYA NATIONAL OIL CORPORATION (NOC) LOGO

Mariupol besieged, but not fallen, says Ukrainian premier

The besieged city of Mariupol has not fallen as Ukrainian troops are holding on in defiance of the Russian demand that they surrender, Ukraine's prime minister said on Sunday.

“The city still has not fallen. There (are) still our military forces, our soldiers, so they will fight until the end,” Denys Shmyhal said in an interview with ABC's This Week program.

He also said Ukrainian soldiers continue to control some parts of the city, stressing there is no whole control of Mariupol, a strategic port city south of Ukraine, by Russian forces.

Earlier, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy told the online newspaper Ukrayinska Pravda that the situation is “very difficult” in Mariupol.

“Our military is blocked, the wounded are blocked. There is a humanitarian crisis … Nevertheless; the guys are defending the city.”

In an interview with CNN on Friday, Zelenskyy said it is difficult to talk about civilian casualties as towns and cities south of Ukraine are blocked.

“… Kherson, Berdyansk, Mariupol further east, and the area to the east where Volnovakha is -- we just don't know how many people have died in that area that is blocked.”

At least 1,982 civilians have been killed and 2,651 injured in Ukraine since the start of the war on Feb. 24, according to UN estimates, with the true figure believed to be much higher.

More than 4.8 million Ukrainians have fled to other countries, with over 7 million more internally displaced, and said the UN refugee agency. (Anadolu Agency)

•PHOTO CAPTION: Local residents walk past a destroyed part of the Illich Iron & Steel Works Metallurgical Plant, the second largest metallurgical enterprise in Ukraine, in Mariupol, April 16, 2022.

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