Refinery near Tripoli to restart, says official

ZAWIYA, Libya — The largest refinery in Libya’s gasoline-starved west is set to restart operations within a day or two, an official at the facility said on Saturday.

Mohammed Aziz, an operations manager at the huge refinery in Zawiya, 19 miles (30 kilometers) from Tripoli, said the complex will soon start refining crude oil again and producing gasoline and diesel fuel.

“After tomorrow it will be operational,” he said. “The refinery is now shut down and we are preparing for starting to produce gasoline and gasoil (diesel) for the local market.”

Aziz, speaking at the refinery’s gas pump as rebels lined up to receive fuel for free, said the refinery will start processing stored crude first, and should start receiving new supplies from the southern oil fields in two days.

In Tripoli in recent days, the cost of a 20-liter (about 5-gallon) can of gas has risen to about $100 and higher, some 28 times the price before fighting broke out months ago.

The refinery has a capacity of 120,000 barrels per day, the second largest in the country after the eastern complex in Ras Lanouf, which was only recently recaptured and is believed to have been damaged in the fighting.

With the start of the uprising, production at Zawiya dropped by half. Even at full capacity, however, it is still a long way from fulfilling Libya’s domestic needs.

Since the uprising began in February, featuring fighting around much of its oil infrastructure, oil-rich Libya has found itself having to import much of its gasoline from Tunisia, which has far less oil.

Fighting near the Tunisian border at the coast, however, has cut even that lifeline, leaving just a trickle of fuel coming across the mountain passes.