Libya halts oil shipments to Switzerland

OPEC member Libya is halting oil shipments to Switzerland in protest at the arrest of a son of Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, workers of state-owned Maritime Transport National Corporation said on Thursday.

All ships carrying Swiss-made goods are barred from unloading their cargoes at Libyan ports, they added in a statement issued shortly after they staged a protest outside the Swiss embassy in Tripoli.

The ban on oil shipments includes both crude oil and refined petroleum products. The protesters also threatened unspecified further action against Swiss authorities if they did not apologise "in the next coming hours" for the arrest in Geneva on July 15 of Hannibal Gaddafi.

In Zurich, Rolf Hartl, Managing Director of the Swiss Oil Association, described Libya as an important supplier, providing about 50,000 barrels of Switzerland's 250,000 barrels per day (bpd) consumption.

The Swiss Customs Office said oil imports from Libya made up 80 percent of all Swiss oil imports in the first six months of 2008 in terms of volume, and for 50 percent last year.

Libya's top oil official, National Oil Corporation head Shokhri Ghanem, declined to comment.

Libya's state-owned Tamoil company owns a 72,000 bpd refinery at Collombey in Switzerland as well as a network of petrol stations in the country.

Gaddafi, who is a senior official of the maritime corporation, was released on bail in Geneva after he and his wife were charged with ill-treatment of two domestic employees. Gaddafi denied the charges, his lawyer has said.

Gaddafi was arrested in a luxury hotel after staff alerted police to repeated arguments in their suite. He spent two nights in jail while his wife Aline, who is nine months pregnant, was taken to hospital feeling unwell.