East Libyan forces target rivals around oil ports

Benghazi/Tripoli: East Libyan forces carried out air strikes around major oil ports overnight as they sought to regain control of the area from a rival faction, a military spokesman said on Saturday.
The eastern-based Libyan National Army (LNA) and allied forces retreated on Friday from the oil ports of Es Sider and Ras Lanuf, two of Libya's largest export terminals, as a faction known as the Benghazi Defence Brigades (BDB) attacked. The assault raised the prospect of a new escalation of violence around the ports, and put at risk a sharp boost to Libya's oil production achieved after the LNA took over four ports in September, ending a blockade at three of them.
Though Es Sider and Ras Lanuf have been reopened for exports, they were badly damaged in past fighting and are operating well below capacity.
It was not clear to what extent the BDB had gained control over the ports, or whether operations at the terminals had been affected.
In response to the BDB advance, air strikes were carried out in Ras Lanuf, Es Sidra, Ben Jawad and Harawa, LNA spokesman Ahmed Al Mismari told Reuters.
A resident in Ras Lanuf said they heard war planes over the town at dawn on Saturday, followed by explosions.
Residents posted pictures of fires and damage to buildings apparently caused by the strikes.
Libya's oil production has recently been fluctuating around 700,000 barrels per day (bpd), more than double its output last year but still well under the 1.6 million bpd the OPEC member was producing before a 2011 uprising.
The Benghazi Defence Brigades are composed partly of fighters who were ousted from Benghazi by the LNA, where LNA commander Khalifa Haftar has been waging a military campaign for nearly three years against extremists and other opponents.
That battle is linked to a wider conflict between political and armed factions based in eastern and western Libya. Meanwhile, Libya's National Oil Corporation (NOC) held an urgent meeting in Tripoli to review crude loading schedules and emergency measures to protect oil facilities after clashes around Es Sider and Ras Lanuf, it said in a statement on Saturday.
The meeting on Friday studied "how to maintain the safety of employees and of oil assets and tanks and facilities within the ports, and to study and review the crude loading plans in accordance with the scheduled tables for export operations", the statement said.
It did not detail any specific measures taken or say that there had been any change to operations in the ports.