Drone strike targets oil facility in Libya’s Zawiya amid refinery fire

Hind Al Soulia - Riyadh - TRIPOLI —A drone targeted an oil facility in Libya’s western city of Zawiya, marking the third such incident since Sunday, the National Oil Corporation (NOC) said early Tuesday.

In a statement, the NOC said the remotely operated drone fell near the main oil tank and pipeline network at a blending and packaging plant operated by the Zawiya Oil Refining Company.

No casualties or material damage were reported.

The latest incident followed an explosion inside a gasoline storage tank at the Zawiya oil depot Monday that sparked a major fire and prompted the NOC to declare a state of “maximum emergency.”

The tank, which contained an estimated 4.5 million liters of gasoline, later collapsed as emergency crews worked to contain the blaze and prevent it from spreading to nearby facilities.

The incident came two days after a drone crashed into an untreated naphtha tank at the refinery early on Saturday, causing a leak that staff managed ​to control.

The NOC warned that repeated attacks were posing a growing threat to oil facilities in the area and called for urgent intervention by the relevant authorities.

It also placed firefighting and safety teams on heightened alert for any further incidents.

The NOC warned that if the attacks continue, it could declare force majeure and completely halt operations at the Zawiya refinery.

Zawiya refinery is the ‌largest in the ​country ‌while Ras ​Lanuf is out ⁠of operation and is located around 40 kilometers west of Tripoli.

The facility has a capacity of 120,000 barrels per day. It is connected to the country’s 300,000 bpd Sharara oilfield.

Sources cited by Reuters stated that the blasts and the subsequent fire occurred in one of the primary fuel storage units within the refinery complex.

The tank, with estimated 4.5 million ‌liters of gasoline, “was directly targeted,” NOC said in a statement.

It demanded competent authorities to “immediately ‌intervene” and launch investigations into the incident.

Unverified footage posted online ⁠showed ⁠huge blazes and thick black smoke billowing in the sky in Zawiya city.

The refinery is still functioning without any suspension, two engineers working at the refinery said.

Libya remains divided between two rival governments: the internationally recognized Government of National Unity headed by Abdul Hamid Dbeibeh and based in Tripoli which administers western Libya and a government appointed by the House of Representatives in early 2022 currently headed by Osama Hammad and based in Benghazi, which administers the east and most of the south.

For years, the UN Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL) has sought to broker a political settlement leading to elections, which many Libyans hope will end the political divisions and armed conflict that have persisted since the 2011 ouster of Muammar Gaddafi.