Petroleum Facilities Guards Blockade Zawia Oil Refinery's Main Entrance Over Pay and Conditions

Members of the Ministry of Defence's Petroleum Facilities Guards (PFG) blockaded the main entrance of the Zawia Oil Refinery on Sunday, September 13, 2026, in an industrial-action protest over pay and working conditions, after several days of the dispute circulating on social media. The refinery said in a statement that 'work at the company continues normally,' with staff and shipments temporarily rerouted through an alternative entrance via the Brega Oil Marketing Company facility, and it urged employees to use the designated route and cooperate with authorities to maintain operational continuity. Neither the National Oil Corporation nor the GNU has issued a statement on the guards' grievances. The blockade is unrelated to the unclaimed drone-strike campaign that hit the refinery in August and the arrests the GNU announced in connection with it on September 6.