Muammar Qaddafi forces attacked the refinery gate, killing 15 guards and wounding two, in what appears to be an attempt to stop Libya’s new rulers from reviving the economy.
“There was no damage to the refinery,” the chairman of the Ras Lanuf Oil and Gas Processing Company (Rasco) Abdelrazig Khalifa said.
“Some cars came from the south side. They shot from 10 km away.”
No Rasco workers were hurt, Khalifa added.
The refinery is the country’s largest with the capacity to process 220,000 barrels per day but was not fully operational when the attack happened. The Ras Lanuf site is also a crude oil export terminal.
Libya’s interim prime minister said earlier the OPEC country had started producing oil from an undisclosed location in a sign that Libya could soon start generating income from oil exports and cut dependence on expensive imported fuels.
Libyan oil firm the Arabian Gulf Oil Company said it had started pumping oil from its eastern Sarir field. Current output was 50,000 barrels per day, it said.
