Protesters of a Libyan minority demanding more rights at Mellitah port, operated by Italy's Eni and Libya's National Oil Corp, have ordered staff to halt gas exports to Italy, an oil union official said.

"We tried to convince them not to close the pipeline, but it's closed now," Munir Abu Saud, head of the local oil workers' union, told Reuters.

A spokesman for the protesters said they had ordered the closure of the pipeline to Italy, because parliament and government had not met their demands for greater political rights by yesterday.

Sign up to our free newsletters

Get the best updates straight to your inbox:
Please select at least one mailing list.

You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the link in the footer of our emails. We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform. By subscribing, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing.