African mercenaries hired by the Libyan leader Muammar Ghaddafi have attacked a drilling rig number 215 which belongs to Entreprise Nationale des Travaux aux Puits (ENTP), a subsidiary of the Algerian National oil company Sonatrach.
The driller is based in Ghadames in Al Hamada Al Hamra Basin in the southwest of the country, according to Algerian newspaper Echorouk.
The US$20 million drilling rig started operations in Libya in 2008, as part of the joint venture projects between Sonatrach and NOC Libya. The rig driller operates both long and medium holes, in both new drilling and well development.
The attack on the drilling rig is the second of its kind on Sonatrach’s operations in Libya, after a compound for expatriate oil workers in the same area was subject to attacks by African mercenaries. The compound is located in the South West of Libya, 150 kilometres of the Algerian border.
In a related development, Tamoil, an oil company owned by one of Ghaddafi’s sons has been accused by the Libyan opposition of hiring mercenaries through its office in Morrocco, the Al Jazeera news channel reported.
