TRIPOLI: Oil production has resumed at two major Libyan oil fields, the oil ministry said Sunday, after a brief shutdown by demonstrators protesting the arrest of a former minister.
“Operations have resumed in the Al-Sharara and Al-Fil oil fields... after they were suspended” Thursday, said the ministry, part of the UN-brokered Government of National Unity based in Tripoli.
The ministry made no mention of the cause of closure in its brief Facebook statement.
Former finance minister Faraj Abderrahmane Boumtari was among a number of people targeted in what the United Nations has described as a campaign of “continued abductions, arbitrary arrests, and disappearances.”
He was arrested and taken to an unknown location on Wednesday upon his arrival at Mitiga international airport in Tripoli by internal security agents.
Members of his Zouaya tribe on Thursday threatened to block oil terminals in the east if he was not released.
Boumtari was released Saturday upon an order from the prosecutor general, local media reported.
Libya sits on Africa’s largest oil reserves but production has been frequently disrupted during over a decade of chaos since a NATO-backed uprising led to the ouster and killing of former dictator Muammar Qaddafi in 2011.
Both Al-Sharara, which provides a quarter of Libya’s daily oil output, and Al-Fil have seen frequent interruptions amid clashes between groups loyal to the Tripoli-based GNU and those backed by a rival government in the east.
Production resumes at key Libya oil fields days after protests
https://arab.news/bn3r6
Production resumes at key Libya oil fields days after protests
- Libya's oil ministry made no mention of the cause of closure in its brief Facebook statement
Morocco to secure 60% of water needs from desalination
- Rabat boosts investment in facilities powered by renewable energy, minister tells Marrakech conference
MARRAKECH: Morocco, which has endured seven years of drought, plans to supply 60 percent of its drinking water from treated seawater by 2030, up from 25 percent, its water minister said, as Rabat accelerates investment in desalination plants powered by renewable energy.
The push is crucial to ensure a steady water supply and to maintain Morocco’s status as a key producer and exporter of fresh produce amid climate change, as droughts have dried up some of its main water reservoirs and depleted underground resources.
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The plant will have a capacity of 350 million cubic meters and will supply urban centers in Morocco’s food basket as well as farmlands.
The North African country plans to produce 1.7 billion cubic meters of desalinated water annually by 2030 from projects under construction and plants for which it will hold tenders starting next year, Nizar Baraka said on the sidelines of the World Water Congress in Marrakech.
The largest plant — with planned investment of about 10 billion dirhams ($1 billion) — will be located near Tiznit, 615 km south of the capital Rabat.
It will have a capacity of 350 million cubic meters and will supply urban centers in the country’s food basket as well as farmlands, he said.
“Studies are underway as part of preparations for the plant’s tender, to be announced by mid next year,” Baraka said.
Besides the northern cities of Nador and Tangier, plants are also planned in Rabat in partnership with the French group Veolia, as well as in Tantan, where the government is considering building a port dedicated to green hydrogen and ammonia exports, Baraka said.
Morocco currently operates 17 desalination plants producing 345 million cubic meters annually.
Four additional plants are under construction with a combined capacity of 540 million cubic meters, scheduled to be ready by 2027, including a major facility in Casablanca, the country’s most populous city.
“All new desalination plants will be powered by renewable energy,” Baraka said.
Morocco has also faced rising temperatures and worsening evaporation in dams.
To counter this, it installed floating solar panels on a dam near Tangier to reduce evaporation, which accounts for 30 percent of the country’s surface water loss, according to the minister.
“The experiment will be expanded to include dams in the south and mountainous regions,” Baraka said.
