Since eastern strongman General Khalifa Haftar ordered his self-styled Libyan National Army (LNA) to march on Tripoli, almost 180 people have died and 800 others have been wounded in the latest escalation of violence in one of OPEC’s most volatile member states. Nearly two weeks ago troops loyal to General Haftar started advancing westward on Libya’s capital Tripoli and clashed with troops of the UN-backed government in a renewed confrontation that could escalate and threaten to disrupt, once again, Libya’s oil production and exports. The flare-up of hostilities helped to drive oil prices last week to their highest in five months amid fears that the renewed fighting may impact Libya’s oil industry. Also last week, the chairman of Libya’s National Oil Corporation (NOC), Mustafa Sanalla, told the Financial Times in an interview that Libya’s oil production is under threat from the renewed fighting and the situation could become as […]