In its annual report published on 27 February, US oil company Hess confirms that “production is currently shut-in” on the Waha fields operated by a joint venture grouping it with NOC and fellow US firms ConocoPhillips and Marathon. NOC declared force majeure on the fields in December 2014, said the report.

Output was all but shut for more than a year – between end-July 2013 and September 2014 – as a result of the shutdown of the 450,000 b/d capacity Es Sider crude oil export terminal (Libya’s largest) on which Waha is reliant. Es Sider and the nearby 250,000 b/d capacity Ras Lanuf terminal, have again been closed since mid-December fighting, which also destroyed a combined 850,000 barrels of oil storage tanks at the two ports (MEES, 19 December 2014). (CONTINUED - 501 WORDS)