A Zintan-based armed group, dubbed Rayayna Patrols Brigade, of the Petroleum Facilities Guard reopened the Rayayna oil pipeline on Wednesday after receiving instructions to do so by the western operations room of the armed forces led by Khalifa Haftar.

Rayayna oil pipeline connects Al-Sharara and Al-Feel oilfields to the oil terminals in western Libya.

In a statement issued by the armed group, it said it shut the pipeline for two years disallowing oil to be pumped through it based on the necessities of the war in the western region as oil was used to fund illegitimate wars.

The Zintani armed group that is affiliated with Haftar’s forces shut the pipeline in late 2014 after Zintani forces had pulled out from their positions in Tripoli as they were defeated by Libya Dawn forces, which were formed from different brigades from various Libyan cities following the surfacing of Dignity-like operation in Tripoli.

The Chairman of the Libyan National Oil Corporation, Mustafa Sanallah, said they filed a lawsuit in last October at the Attorney General’s Office against the militia that is shutting down Rayayna oil pipeline and he immediately accepted the lawsuit.

Sanallah added that the Zintan-based militia closed the pipeline in Rayayna district and made Libya lose over 27 billion dollars, although the pipeline is located 30 km away from Zintan.

The Head of the Audit Bureau, Khalid Shakshak said in a televised interview last November that the reopening of Rayayna oil pipeline and the resumption of pumping oil through it would solve 70% of Libya’s economic crises.