Libya contracts U.S. firm to extinguish port storage tanks fire

30/12/2014 - 0:31

TRIPOLI (Reuters) - Libya's recognised government has contracted a U.S. firefighter firm to help extinguish fires at storage tanks at the Es Sider oil port, a spokesman said on Monday.

Work would start within five days, government spokesman Mohamed Bazaza said, confirming a statement on a government website. The value of the contract was $6 million, the statement said, without naming the company. Fire has been raging for days at several storage tanks at Es Sider, Libya's biggest oil port, due to clashes of brigades allied with competing governments vying for control of the country's oil facilities.

(Reporting by Ulf Laessing; Editing by Toni Reinhold)