TRIPOLI 

An official from the Libya’s Petroleum Facilities Guards announced Saturday it is awaiting orders to clear oil wells from warlord Khalifa Haftar’s militias.

It managed to open the oil connection valve between the El-Sharara oil well in Ubari and the Millite oil complex, Ali az-Zib told the private Libya Panorama TV channel.

He said work at the El-Sharara and El-Feel oilfields would soon resume but did not specify an exact date for the reopening of the oilfields.

Petroleum Facilities Guards announced earlier Saturday it opened the al-Himade valve that delivered oil from the Sharara to the refinery in Zaviya by contacting residents of Zintan and the armed group that closed the valve.

El-Sharara oilfield produces more than 300,000 barrels of crude oil daily, forming roughly one-third of the oil-rich country's production.

El-Sharara and El-Feel oilfields were shut down earlier this year.

Libya holds Africa’s largest crude reserves, but nine years of conflict and violence since the 2011 ouster of ruler Muammar Gaddafi have hobbled production and exports.

Libya's internationally recognized government has been under attack by Haftar's forces since April 2019, with more than 1,000 killed in the violence.

The government launched Operation Peace Storm in March to counter attacks on the capital and recently regained strategic locations, including the Al-Watiya airbase and Tarhuna, which is viewed as a significant blow to Haftar's forces.

*Writing by Havva Kara Aydin