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Africa North
Fires spread to five oil tanks at key Libya terminal
2014-12-28
More storage tanks were ablaze on Saturday at one of Libya’s main oil terminals after a rocket attack by militiamen, officials said as the UN denounced attacks on oil installations.

The rocket was fired on Thursday by militiamen from Fajr Libya (Libya Dawn). One oil tank was hit, said the region’s security spokesman Ali Al Hassi, before the fire spread on Friday to two other full tanks at Al Sidra terminal.
"What happened?"
"Uh... had a slight weapons malfunction. But, uh, everything's perfectly all right now. We're fine. We're all fine here, now, thank you. How are you?"
On Saturday the flames engulfed another two storage tanks at Al Sidra, which is in the eastern region known as the “oil crescent” and home to other key terminals, he said.
"We're sending a squad up."
"Uh, uh, negative. We had a reactor leak here now. Give us a few minutes to lock it down. Large leak... very dangerous."
The United Nations Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL) said in a statement on Saturday that it “strongly condemns” attacks on Libya’s oil installations.
"Who is this? What's your operating number?"
[ BOOM! ]
"Boring conversation anyway."
“The mission warns of the environmental and economic consequences as a result of this violence and destruction in the oil crescent area, and urges the forces on the ground to cooperate in order to allow the fire crews to extinguish the blaze,” it said.

Hassi said the national fire department refused to extinguish the fires, prompting volunteer firefighters to come forward to fight the flames with the help of oil installation guards.

“They are doing their best to extinguish the fire and are working under difficult conditions,” Hassi said.

A technician for Waha, the company responsible for running Al Sidra, said there are 19 storage tanks at the terminal with a total capacity of 6.2 million barrels of oil. The source, who declined to be named, estimated the amount of crude lost to the fire so far at more than 1.6 million barrels.

In its statement, UNSMIL called attacks on oil installations a “clear violation” of UN Security Council resolutions on Libya.

“Libyan oil belongs to all the Libyan people and is the country’s economic lifeline,” it said, urging all sides to “desist from any action that endangers this strategic national asset”.
Posted by:Steve White

#1  Memo to UN ninnies standing around in Libya:

Those knuckle dragging Islamic fanatics are not going to pay ANY attention to a UN resolution.

Secondly, if you don't have a gun get one, you will need it before you can write another strongly worded letter to whatever nutjob you think is in charge of the Libya Dawn.

Those knuckle heads moved in next door to me when I was in Tripoli in 2013, most of them were fresh faced kids straight from some very elite school somewhere...they looked more like an add for toothpaste than a UN mission...or at least not like any I've seen in 30 years.
Posted by: Bill Clinton   2014-12-28 22:30  

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