NOC: Halting Sharara Oilfield Would Be 'Catastrophic'

Libya's National Oil Corp (NOC) warned on Sunday of "catastrophic consequences" if the El Sharara oilfield is brought to a complete halt by a protest by tribesmen.

The state oil company said it would take a long time to bring back the field onstream because of the damage resulting from the "sabotage and theft."

The company said the storage tanks at the field will be completely full in the next hours, forcing the field to shutdown as it cannot pump the crude out to the processing facilities.

The production of the El Feel oilfield will also stop because El Sharara supplies it with power, it said in a statement.

NOC described the protesters as criminals because they stopped the pumps from functioning.

(Reporting by Maher Chmaytelli Editing by Matthew Mpoke Bigg)