As growing political unrest in Libya forces some of the country’s oil fields and ports to close, the Libyan Ministry of Oil and Gas assured that it is closely monitoring the situation in a recent statement, but pointed out that these closures will force production into a downward spiral.

The Ministry elaborated that these developments will be an obstacle to obtaining profitable returns expected from the sale of crude oil and gas.

It added that these closures will affect the position of Libya’s National Oil Corporation (NOC) in the global market as a result of its inability to meet its obligations. There has also been damage to reservoirs, infrastructure, and surface facilities of the oil facilities, which are in critical condition and suffer from several technical problems and need maintenance work.

They also indicated that closing the oil again will come at a high cost, forcing Libyans to suffer the loss of billions of dollars as a result of previous closures.

The ministry also called for all Libyans to uphold national interests and on the United Nations mission to abide by their role to sponsor dialogue.