TRIPOLI - Libyan Prime Minister Ali Zeidan has said guards protesting at some of the country's main oil ports want to sell oil outside official channels and that force will be usedto stop them.
The protests are located mainly in the eastern portion of Libya.
The strikes and demonstrations, which began with armed security guards asking for higher pay at Es Sider and Ras Lanuf, have continued for weeks.
The two ports have a combined export capacity of just less than 600,000 barrels per day, out of Libya's total of just over 1.2 million
barrels per day.
The action has pushed oil production and exports, the lifeblood of the north African country's economy, to their lowest levels since the civil war that ousted veteran leader Muammar Gaddafi in 2011.
zeidan on Thursday, told journalists that the guards were trying to sell oil illegally.
He accused the leader of the protesters, Ibrahim al-Jathran, of wanting to sell the oil independently of Libya's state National Oil Corp.
“The head of the protesters wants to export oil for their own group, they do not want to make concessions,” Zeidan said.
“If any tanker comes to the port to pick up oil then we will use any means to stop it. This could involve the army, navy or air force.”
Oil Minister Abdelbari al-Arusi said all ports were shut except for Zawiya in the west.
"Libya has lost $1.6bn in oil sales since July 25 until today," al-Arusi said.
Earlier on Thursday his deputy, Omar Shakmak, said that negotiations to resume exports from Es Sider, the country's biggest crude oil terminal, had failed.
No comment was immediately available from the protesters, who have not publicly threatened to sell oil independently.
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