Libyan Nafoura oilfield shuts due to pipeline blockage

BENGHAZI, Libya (Reuters) - Libya's Nafoura oilfield has shut down due to a blockage in the pipeline linking it to the eastern port of Zueitina, a spokesman for the state operator AGOCO said on Thursday.

Renewed protests have closed several Libyan oilfields and ports in the past two weeks as violence and a breakdown in state authority continues.

The field's output was between 30,000 and 35,000 barrels per day (bpd), the spokesman said. Protesters demanding jobs this week stopped all crude flows to Zueitina.

Zueitina was one of the few Libyan ports still exporting oil as the largest Ras Lanuf and Es Sider closed in December when clashes erupted between armed groups allied to Libya's two governments that are vying for control.

While Zueitina was closed, a tanker left the eastern port of Hariga after lifting one million barrels of crude, an oil official said.

A second tanker was about to dock at the port near the Egyptian border to lift 700,000 barrels, the official said, asking not to be named.

Last month, also the western El Feel oilfield, run by state firm NOC and Italy's ENI, shut down due to a strike by security guards demanding state jobs. The neighboring El Sharara field had already closed in November due to a pipeline blockage.

NOC has not published any oil production figure recently but industry sources estimate that output is now less than 400,000 bpd. Libya pumped up to 1.6 million bpd in 2010.

The loss of oil revenue has triggered a public finance crisis, forcing the central bank to use up a quarter of its foreign currency reserves in 2014, according to official data.

Libya is caught in a struggle between two governments, the official one based in the east and a rival administration controlling Tripoli, fighting for control as former rebels who helped oust Muammar Gaddafi in 2011 have fallen out along political, regional and tribal lines.