Libya's Ghani oilfield raided by Islamic State

"There was screaming and shouting - It was chaos" - a soldier from the country's Petroleum Facilities Guard speaks out about the gunmen's murderous raid on the Ghani oilfield

It is fair to say that Libya's Ghani oilfield was never one of the country's output superstars. Tucked away on the edge of the Sirte basin, one of a cluster of five fields operated by Harouge Oil Operations, its production of up to 74,000 barrels a day (b/d) made it a solid performer, rather than a standout. Ghani's name was not banded about at oil conferences, nor did it feature in spectacular bidding wars, and many in the industry had never heard of it. They have heard about it now, though. On 6 March, Islamic State (IS) militants attacked the plant, beheading eight Libyan guards and cap-turing nine foreign hostages. In doing so, they threw Libya's entire oil industry, home to Africa's lar