Libya threatens to bomb North Korean tanker if it ships oil from rebel port

Libya threatened on Saturday to bomb a North Korean-flagged tanker if it tried to ship oil from a rebel-controlled port, in a major escalation of a standoff over the country's petroleum wealth.
The rebels, who have seized three major Libyan ports since August to press their demands for more autonomy, warned Tripoli against staging an attack to halt the oil sale after the tanker docked at Es Sider terminal, one of the country's biggest. The vessel started loading crude late at night, oil officials said.

Western powers worry Libya will slide into deeper instability or even break apart as the government, paralyzed by political battles in parliament, struggles to assert control of a vast country awash with arms and militias.
At a Libya conference this week in Rome, Western countries voiced concern that tensions in Libya could slip out of control in the absence of a functioning political system, and urged the government and rival factions to start talking.
U.S. Ambassador to Libya Deborah Jones said in a series of tweets on Saturday that the only parties authorized to sell Libya's oil are the National Oil Corp and its subsidiaries and partners.
"Any purchase of oil within Libya from anyone other than those entities amounts to theft from the Libyan people," she said, adding that companies that engage in illicit trade with separatist groups in Libya risk liability in multiple jurisdictions.
Libya's government has tried to end a wave of protests at oil ports and fields across the vast desert state that have slashed oil output, the country's lifeline, to 230,000 barrels per day (bpd), from 1.4 million bpd in July.
Tripoli has held indirect talks with Jathran, who seized the port, but his demand for a greater share of oil revenues for the east, like the region had under Gaddafi's predecessor King Idris, is sensitive for a government that worries this might lead to secession.
Jathran has teamed up with another set of protesters blocking oil exports at the 110,000-bpd Hariga port in Tobruk, also located in the east.



http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/03/09/us-libya-oil-idUSBREA2709K20140309