PROTESTERS forced Libya’s largest oil field to suspend production on Sunday, the country’s state-run oil company admitted.

Local media reported that residents of the desert town of Ubari, about 590 miles south of the capital Tripoli, shut down the field to protest fuel shortages.

The protesters are also calling for rehabilitating infrastructure and repairing roads in the south-western region of Fezzan, one of the historic three provinces of Libya. 

The National Oil Corporation declared “force majeure” at the Sharara oil field in the country’s south, starting on Sunday. 

Force majeure is a legal manoeuvre that releases a company of its contractual obligations because of extraordinary circumstances.

The company said in a statement that the closure of the field forced the suspension of crude oil supplies to the western Zawiya terminal on the Mediterranean coast.

Libya produces more than 1.2 million barrels of oil per day, and Sharara is the country’s largest field, with a capacity of up to 300,000 barrels per day.

The company said negotiations with the protesters were underway to resume production “as soon as possible.”

Libya has been in turmoil since a Nato-backed uprising toppled and killed the country’s long-time leader Colonel Muammar Gadaffi in 2011.