Heavy clashes erupt at Libya oil crescent as control slips out of Haftar’s hand to Jodran’s

Clashes erupted this dawn at the Libyan oil crescent between a coalition of forces led by former leader of the Petroleum Facilities Guard (PFG) Ibrahim Jodran and the forces of the self-styled army of Khalifa Haftar, who are positioned in the region.

Libya’s Es Sider oil port was shut on Thursday due to the clashes nearby and at least one storage tank in the neighbouring Ras Lanuf terminal was set alight, an engineer in the area said. Loadings were suspended at Ras Lanuf, according to a local shipping agent.

Jodran, who appeared today out of the blue, says his coalition forces aim to lift the suffering of the Libyans from “terrorist entity as that of Haftar’s self-styled army.”

According to sources from the scene of fighting, airstrikes are being used by Haftar’s forces to thwart the full control of the PFG on the oil crescent region.

Storage tanks at both terminals were badly damaged in previous fighting and have yet to be repaired, though there has been regular loadings from Es Sider.