Sidra, Libya

Sidra is a port town in the Sirte District of Tripolitania, Libya, about twenty-three kilometers west of Ra's Lanuf, and gives its name to the Gulf of Sidra, a Cold War-era alternative name for the Gulf of Sirte. It is the site of Libya's largest oil depot, shipping about 447,000 barrels of oil per day, a facility whose importance grew as Libya's oil-based economy developed in the last quarter of the twentieth century, and it has an adjacent airport. Its population was 9,186 according to 1995 data.