Drone Strikes Hit Libya’s Zawiya Refinery Amid Escalating Attacks
According to the International Desk of Webangah News Agency, a powerful explosion was heard at the storage depots of the Zawiya refinery in northwestern Libya, as reported by Al Jazeera. The operations room at the Zawiya refinery confirmed that the explosion in the storage tanks was a result of drone attacks.
This incident follows previous warnings from Libya’s National Oil Corporation (NOC). Just hours earlier, after reporting a third similar attack on Sunday and Monday, the NOC announced on Tuesday, August 10, 2026, that it might declare a state of emergency and completely halt operations at the Zawiya refinery if drone attacks on the city’s oil facilities persisted. The NOC also stated that in the latest drone attack, a factory managed by the Zawiya Oil Refining Company was targeted, with debris falling near the plant’s main oil tank and the pipeline network used for domestic oil production. Fortunately, this attack resulted in no casualties or material damage.
No individual or group has yet claimed responsibility for these attacks, and Libyan officials have not identified the perpetrators. The Zawiya refinery, located approximately 40 kilometers (25 miles) west of Tripoli, has a production capacity of 120,000 barrels per day and is connected to Libya’s Sharara oil field, which has a capacity of 300,000 barrels per day. Following the cessation of operations at the Ras Lanuf refinery, Zawiya is currently considered Libya’s largest operational refinery.
Berga Petroleum Marketing Company reported that after a drone strike on Monday, August 9, 2026, a fire accompanied by heavy smoke broke out in one of the fuel tanks at the Zawiya refinery’s oil depot. In response, the Libyan Ministry of Oil announced on Tuesday that the affected tank, belonging to Berga company and containing approximately 4.5 million liters of gasoline, caught fire and was destroyed. The ministry further stated that the drone attacks had also targeted the Zawiya refinery complex and a desalination plant.
In a separate statement on Monday, the NOC announced that this tank had been targeted and declared a state of emergency in the area, urging national authorities to investigate the incident. Two engineers working at the refinery confirmed on Monday that operations were ongoing. Earlier on Saturday, a drone had collided with an unrefined naphtha tank at the Zawiya refinery, causing a leak, which refinery staff managed to contain.
