Marsa El Brega

Marsa el Brega, also spelled Marsā al-Burayqah, Mediterranean port on the Gulf of Sidra in northeastern Libya. The site, which was located by a small fishing village destroyed during World War II, contained nothing but land mines when it was chosen as the terminal for Libya’s first oil pipeline, running from Zelten, 105 miles (169 km) south. After 1960 a new port and town were built from prefabricated materials, including breakwaters and a wharf for supply ships, undersea pipes and floating berths for oil tankers, a power plant, housing, paved streets, and trees to hold back the sand. The first oil flowed there for shipment in 1961, and a refinery and a natural gas liquefaction plant were subsequently opened. An ammonia-processing plant was opened in 1977. Marsa el Brega is becoming the country’s major petrochemicals centre. There is a technical training school. The coastal highway connecting Tripoli with Benghazi and Cairo passes through the town. Pop. (2003 est.) 12,594.