AND WE MADE AN AGREMENT THIS WEEK WITH LIBYA FOR CHEAP OIL ??????? Libya Without Oil 03/09/2013 03:48:00 Oil installation guard inspects an oil well in southeast Libya. The Tripoli Post If oil is a curse on oil-producing countries as history has shown for over a century, then the attempt by some Libyans to bring oil exports to a halt might be the right thing to do. “Shutdown of oil fields in eastern and southwestern Libya by the revolutionaries is to continue until the public find out where the 130 billion dinar ($103 billion) had gone since approved by the National Congress of the last and this year’s budgets.” This is more or less the logic and reasoning that is being put forward by those who are taking part in the blockades of oil terminals and oil fields in Libya. Indeed if one asks the decision makers in Libya, who have controlled power since Prime Minister Abdulraheem Elkeib took office in through the current cabinet headed by Prime Minister Ali Zidan who took over in November 2011 from his predecessor Elkeib, none would be able to answer for sure just where the 130 billion dinar two-year budget had gone. In fact, there is an increasing public support for such actions as the government has squarely failed to start the process of reconstruction, fight an increasingly widespread corruption, rebuild the army and police force or bring about the minimum of security and stability to the country. If this trend continues, namely incompetent government and consequent public distrust of its actions, Libya will have no oil or gas for exportation in the near future. According to Deputy Oil Minister Omar el-Shakmak, Libya’s oil exports have been cut to 300,000 barrels daily, less than a fifth of its regular exports. Between the third week of August and the week that followed oil exports went down 50 percent. By the time of writing this piece there emerge reports that exports have went down to 200,000 barrels per day. Yet some government officials including members of the General Congress as well as oil officials have downplayed the grave implications of the shutdowns by oil installation guards and without paying needed attention to what the guards say they are legitimate demands. El-Shakmak told the Associated Press on 28 August that “the armed men have no connection to the pipelines and are demanding money and vehicles in return for allowing oil to resume flowing.” He also warned the groups responsible that the country will experience fuel shortages if the pipelines remain closed for more than a week. Other officials say the country will plunge into darkness as fuel needed to generate electricity will not be available as a result. But the guards, who are mostly rebels played an important role in the overthrow of Libya’s dictator Gaddafi, dispute such claims based on information they know well about oil exports and oil and gas quantities needed for local consumption. They maintain that the issue at stake is the political struggle in Libya between political parties dominating the executive and legislative branches of government, namely the Muslim Brotherhood and the Nationalist Coalition, on the one hand and the great majority of the Libyan people who feel that these parties are only looking after their own interests even if that leads them hold the country hostage for the years to come. According to oil installations guards of southwest Libya, who are comprised mainly from former rebels from Zintan and the Western Mountain region, what is at stake is the future of Libya’s wealth and money. “What we want from such action is only the regulation of oil exports by making it transparent to the Libyan people in terms of daily production, daily exports and Libyan oil export earnings”. “We do not accept tampering with oil products or to be sold in the black market,” a statement published on Zintan Facebook page clarified. They also denied that they were causing problems to local consumers of oil and gas as the oil fields that have been shutdown are those earmarked for export and they only affect the “oil thieves who are controlling the state” not the citizens. “The Wafa oil field has not been shutdown and the reason is that it feeds electric station in western Libya with the need gas. As for fuel of cars there is a strategic stockpile that meets local demand for six months at Braiga storage facilities,” the statement added. The statement confirmed that three other oilfields were shutdown including Al-Feel (40,000bpd), Al-Hamada (15,000bpd) and Shararah (330,000bpd). In case that a decision is made to shutdown Wafa oilfield, they said they would make sure that those pipelines that feed electric station remain open. Commentators in social media are siding with the shutdowns saying that they do not want the Iraqi oil experience to be repeated in Libya. They say oil resources in Iraq have been stolen and sold in the black market by both local and foreign parties as the Iraqi people has continued to live in poverty and backwardness. “As long as there is no strong central government in place in Libya, it is much better to keep oil underground for the time being,” said one commentator adding we should stop exporting oil until we have our sovereignty. Another commentator says “let us first collect our assets that are outside Libya in forms of sovereign funds and foreign investment projects instead of keeping exporting oil with no revenues coming back to Libya”.Another comment asks “oh you the downtrodden class that includes 90 percent of the Libyan people, is it better to see the revolutionaries shutdown oilfields or your oil is stolen and taken away in oil tanks?”
Posted on: Thu, 05 Sep 2013 07:12:07 +0000
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