BY SAMY MAGDY

CAIRO (AP) — Libya’s state-owned oil company resumed production at the country’s largest oilfield Sunday, ending a more than two-week hiatus after protesters blocked the facility over fuel shortages.

The National Oil Corp. said in a terse statement that it lifted the force majeure at the Sharara oil field in the country’s south and resumed full production. It didn’t provide further details. Force majeure is a legal maneuver that releases a company from its contractual obligations because of extraordinary circumstances.

The company had activated the maneuver on Jan. 7 after protesters from the desert town of Ubari, about 950 kilometers (590 miles) south of the capital, Tripoli, shut down the field to protest fuel shortages.

Over the past two weeks the company’s chief, Farhat Bengdara, and military officials from eastern Libya have been negotiating with the protest leaders, Fezzan Group.

Barzingi al-Zarrouk, the protesters’ spokesman, announced that