Libya starts the year on an uncertain note

A cancelled poll and strikes cast a shadow over the North African producer’s 2022 ambitions

Libya’s hopes of a happy new year have been hit by several late-December roadblocks, which threaten to further erode already shaky confidence among both existing and potential new international investors.    Strikers from the Petroleum Facilities Guard, a government force, towards the end of last month shut down four west Libyan oilfields—Sharara, the country’s biggest field, El Feel, Hamada and Al-Wafa. State-owned NOC subsequently declared force majeure for two western oil terminals, Melittah and Zawiyah. The nearby Wafa gas field, Libya’s largest and a major supplier of volumes to the Greenstream pipeline to Italy, remains unaffected by the industrial action. The strikers say the shutdown