Five oil tanks catch fire at Libya's oil port

Fire spread Saturday to five oil tanks in Libya's largest oil port of Sidra after an oil tank was hit Thursday by a rocket-propelled grenade fired by militias of Libya Dawn, military officials and technicians said.

"Fire spread Saturday to another two oil tanks after a tank was set on fire Thursday by a rocket-propelled grenade fired by militants of Libya Dawn from a boat in the sea toward the harbor," Xinhua quoted Ali Al-Hassi, spokesman of army forces in the area, was quoted as saying.

On Friday, two oil tanks were set on fire. Thus, the total number of oil tanks burning currently is five out of 19 oil tanks in the tank farm area of the port of Sidra, according to a technical officer of Al-Waha Oil Company.

Sidra port is located in the Libyan coast, about 180 km east of Sirte. It includes four berths equipped for cargo ships, as well as 19 tanks for crude oil.

The technical officer of the company, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said that each of the 19 tanks is completely filled. Each one is of a capacity of more than 326,000 barrels.

The officer explained that the amount of oil burned because in the incident is estimated at 1.63 million barrels of crude Brent, in addition to billions of dollars in losses by the loss of these oil tanks.

The oil crescent area includes a number of cities between the city of Benghazi and the city of Sirte, 500 km east of the capital Tripoli.

It contains the largest oil reserves in the country, as well as the oil ports of Sidra, Ras Lanuf and Brega, the largest in Libya.