Libya's largest oil refinery, Ras Lanuf, is intact despite intense fighting nearby between rebels and Muammar Gaddafi's troops and staff are preparing to restart operations at the 220,000 barrel per day plant, the general manager told Reuters.

'Since February we have been shut down. We are now planning to restart the complex. We are ready to start,' Nagib Burweiss, general manager for the refinery at the Ras Lanuf Oil and Gas Processing Company (Rasco) on the Mediterranean coast told Reuters in an interview late on Saturday in its offices in Benghazi.-Reuters