French multinational oil and gas company Total is pulling workers out of Libya as conflict between rival militias continues to escalate after heavy fighting reduced Tripoli’s international airport to a battlefield, destroying planes and terminal buildings.

“Our response to the current situation at the airport has been to temporarily remove some expatriate onshore workers from Tripoli,” said a spokesman for the company on 16 July.

“While it’s true that the closure of Tripoli International airport will cause some difficulties for part of our activities – we can still count on our Libyan staff and on our expatriate staff in Libya, notably to support our offshore activities.”

The latest conflict broke out on the morning of 13 July, as Islamist brigades from the port city of Misrata launched a dawn raid on the airport, which is controlled by rival anti-Islamist brigades from the powerful mountain town of Zintan.

Since then, there have been prolonged periods of heavy fighting with seemingly random shelling and barrages of GRAD rockets, flattening buildings in the airport area. The government has said it is considering making a request for international military assistance.

Neither side in the conflict has yet showed any sign of backing down, despite calls from the Libyan government, the UN and the UK.

Total is in partnership with Libya’s National Oil Corporation on a number of projects, including the development of the Mabruk field in the Sirte Basin and the offshore Al-Jurf field, near the Tunisian border.

The company says opening an office in Malta has helped to minimise disruption caused by the escalating fighting.

“The deterioration of the security situation in Libya generally, and in Tripoli in particular, led us early this year to relocate part of our activity to Malta. The opening of that Malta office has allowed us to adapt the number of expatriates present in Tripoli to reflect the evolving security situation,” said the spokesperson.

Libyan exports currently stand at about 600,000 barrels a day (b/d), about twice as much as two weeks ago, but still a fraction of the 1.4m b/d the country was exporting at the same period last year before gunmen seized control of some of the country’s biggest oil terminals.

Two of the biggest terminals were returned to government control on 2 July, but an official has said they are unlikely to resume normal operations until August due to safety checks that need to be carried out.