Libya sends navy to stop North Korean tanker from taking oil from seized port

TRIPOLI  — Libya’s navy and pro-government militias have dispatched boats to a port held by armed protesters to stop a North Korean-flagged tanker from leaving with crude sold without government permission, officials said on Sunday.

The tanker docked on Saturday at the eastern terminal of Es Sider, one of three ports seized by rebels since August to press demands for autonomy and a bigger share of oil revenue. Local daily Al Wasat said the ship had loaded $36 million of crude.

The rebel oil sale illustrates the deepening turmoil in the OPEC producer, which has failed to rein in fighters who helped oust Muammar Qadhafi in 2011 but who now defy state authority.

In Tripoli, workers at a state oil firm that runs Es Sider port went on strike, urging the government to intervene because their colleagues were under duress from armed protesters.

“We are very angry at what is happening at Es Sider,” said Salah Madari, an oil worker in the capital. “The port’s control officer is being held at gunpoint,” he said, adding that gunmen had also forced a pilot to guide the tanker into dock.

Prime Minister Ali Zeidan said on Saturday the military would bomb the 37,000-tonne Morning Glory if it tried to leave the port, one of Libya’s biggest oil terminals.

There was no sign of any immediate military action. But the navy and allied militias have sent several boats to stop the tanker from leaving, said Culture Minister Habib Al Amin.

He and other government officials did not elaborate at a news conference, but Libyan news websites showed some small boats close to a tanker which they said was the Morning Glory.

“Several navy boats have been dispatched. Now the tanker’s movements are under complete control and nobody can move it,” said Amin, who acts as informal government spokesman. “The tanker will stay where it is.”

“All efforts are being undertaken to stop and seize the tanker, if necessary by a [military] strike, if it does not follow orders,” he said, adding that state prosecutors would treat the loading of the crude as smuggling.

Libya has been trying to rebuild its army since Qadhafi’s overthrow, but analysts say it is not yet a match for battle-hardened militias that fought in the eight-month uprising.

There was no immediate reaction from the protest movement made up of thousands of former state oil guards led by Ibrahim Jathran, who fought Qadhafi troops in 2011 in the east.

The defence ministry earlier issued orders to the chief of staff, air force and navy to deal with the tanker. “The order authorises the use of force and puts the responsibility for any resulting damage on the ship owner,” it said in a statement.

Spokesmen for the state-run National Oil Corp. (NOC) and for the protesters said the tanker was still docked at the port.

A Reuters reporter who visited Es Sider on Saturday evening saw a small number of protesters at the gate. One said their orders were not to let staff out until the loading was complete.

Jathran once led a brigade paid by the state to protect oil facilities. He turned against the government and seized Es Sider and two other eastern ports with thousands of his men in August.

Tripoli has held indirect talks with Jathran, but fears his demand for a greater share of oil revenue for eastern Libya might lead to secession. The region felt disadvantaged under Qadhafi and wants to restore the oil revenue share it received under his predecessor King Idris, who was toppled in 1970.