Category: Libya

Libyan media report says oil production from a field shuttered since 2013 may be on the verge of restarting. File Photo By Dona_Bozzi/Shutterstock. TRIPOLI, Libya, April 6 (UPI) — Libyan media reports, an oil field shuttered since the middle of 2013, may be on the cusp of resuming operations after the resolution of labor disputes. The Libya Herald reported Sunday operations of the Abu Attifel oil field, last producing around 70,000 barrels of oil per day, may restart soon. The report said Italian energy company Eni stopped operations at the field "in August 2013 following the occupation and closure of oil export terminals by secessionist protestors." More than 1,000 demonstrators descended on the facility in late 2013 demanding jobs . "It is not yet clear what deal, if any, has been reached between the locals and the Libyan National Oil Co., which will allow Abu Attifel to restart production," […]

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CAIRO — One of the two factions battling for control of Libya took steps on Sunday to divert incoming oil revenue away from the central bank and into its own new account, a steep escalation in the contest over the country’s vast wealth. Libya’s oil and money are the prizes that have driven much of the competition among militias and factions in the nearly four years since the overthrow of Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi, and as the fighting on the ground has slashed oil revenues, the legal and political battle for control of Libya’s assets has become overt and intense. Over the past nine months, the many local militias that sprang up around Colonel Qaddafi have now broken into two warring coalitions, each with its own provisional government. Officials of the Central Bank of Libya, which holds the country’s roughly $90 billion in foreign reserves and receives the income of […]

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Al-Thinni’s administration is preparing for the reopening of Es Sider and Ras Lanuf oil ports, even if the emergence of a militant armed group affiliated with Islamic State derails operations at the terminals, Al-Thinni said at a news conference in Al-Bayda on Saturday. Photographer: Gianluigi Guercia/AFP/Getty Images Libya’s biggest oil port may reopen in two weeks as fighting in the area recedes amid increasing competition between the divided North African nation’s rival governments for the control of crude exports. Al Mabrook Bu Seif, the chairman of state-run National Oil Corp. appointed by the elected government in the east of the country, said his team will start contacting existing clients to coordinate crude loadings at oil ports, replacing the company’s rival management in the capital, Tripoli, where a cabinet backed by Islamist militias is ruling over most of the western region. “Our management and marketing team are ready to deal […]

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CAIRO (Reuters) – Libya’s oil production is currently 564,000 barrels per day, a spokesman for the National Oil Corp (NOC) of Libya said. "We expect oil output to rise in the coming days," Mohamed El Harari said, adding that Libya’s natural gas production stood at more than 2 billion cubic feet. (Reporting by Feras Bosalum, writing by Ulf Laessing; editing by Jason Neely )

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TRIPOLI/BENGHAZI (Reuters) – Eight civilians were killed in an air strike near Tripoli on Monday, the U.S. ambassador said, as Libya’s internationally recognized government pressed on with an assault to recapture the capital it abandoned to a rival faction last year. Four years after NATO warplanes helped dislodge dictator Muammar Gaddafi, Libya has descended into chaos, with two rival governments fighting for control, both fielding armies of former rebel fighters and air forces that bomb rival territory. The internationally recognized government has been based in the country’s east since being driven out of the capital last August by an alliance of armed groups called Libya’s Dawn, which has set up its own rival government and parliament. On Friday, the eastern-based government announced an assault to recapture Tripoli, even as the sides are both attending U.N.-hosted peace talks in Morocco. Western countries fear a total collapse of central authority in […]

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CAIRO (Reuters) – Libya’s official government, operating out of hotels in the east after being driven from the capital, is unlikely to succeed in plans announced last week to divert the country’s oil export income away from Tripoli. Control over oil is at the heart of a struggle between two rival governments who are fighting for territory in the North African OPEC state four years after the ousting of Muammar Gaddafi. Both sides field armies of fighters whose salaries are paid with export revenues collected by the National Oil Company (NOC), which continues to operate out of Tripoli and sell oil abroad even though the capital is in the hands of a faction whose legitimacy is not recognized by the international buyers. Last week, the internationally recognized government, which runs an eastern rump state since fleeing the capital last year, said it wanted all oil exports to be paid […]

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ENLARGE Fighters from Libya Dawn, an alliance of Islamist-backed militias, take cover during clashes last week with an opposing militia in Bir al-Ghanam, around 30 miles from the capital of Tripoli. Photo: Agence France-Presse/Getty Images Smugglers selling Libya’s heavily subsidized gasoline and diesel abroad at jacked-up prices are likely using at least some of the profit to finance fighting between the country’s rival governments, according to a U.N. report. With recurring violence hampering attempts to resolve Libya’s division, U.N. officials now are considering action that could target at least some of the illegal trade. The sales add up: About $12 million of petroleum products are being smuggled out of the country each month on average, a Libyan oil official said. ENLARGE Officials at Libya’s National Oil Co. say smugglers are diverting some of the fuel to Mediterranean countries such as Tunisia and Malta, where a gallon of diesel costs […]

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Libyan investment chief upbeat about future despite threats to oil, one of the main sources of government revenue. UPI/Tariq aL-Hun. Though Libya’s short-term oil potential is waning, officials at a Malta summit said they were confident economic prosperity would come to the nation’s people. The board of directors at the Libyan Investment Authority met in Malta for their first annual meeting this week as violence lingers in the North African country. LIA Chairman Hassan Bouhadi said the investment authority is independent from political issues in a dividing country. "LIA’s assets are protected and the fund aims to develop these investments to establish economic prosperity for the Libyan people," he was quoted Thursday by the Libya Herald as saying. U.S. Ambassador to Libya Deborah K. Jones wrote in a February piece in the Libyan newspaper the country may go broke if oil continues to get caught in the cross fire. […]

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TRIPOLI, March 19 (Reuters) – Libya’s National Oil Corporation (NOC) is working independently without taking orders from either of the country’s rival governments, the Tripoli-based group said on Thursday. The internationally-recognised government said on Tuesday it wanted to route oil exports through an eastern NOC entity under its leadership rather than via Tripoli, which has traditionally handled oil exports. "The NOC board of directors confirms that NOC’s position is neutral and (that it) receives no directives from either the Tripoli- or Bayda-based governments," it said. Bayda is the seat of the recognised government in the east. "(It) operates in complete independence from both sets of authorities," NOC said. "All revenue proceeds are directly deposited into a Central Bank of Libya designated account." The two governments and parliaments are allied to armed factions fighting for territory and control of oil facilities. The eastern-based government has appointed a new head for […]

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BENGHAZI/CAIRO, Libya (Reuters) – Libya’s internationally recognized government said on Tuesday that any sales of the country’s oil should be arranged through a state firm based in Benghazi under its leadership to prevent fraud. If implemented, the decision would escalate a battle for control that is raging, four years after the ousting of Muammar Gaddafi, between the official government based in the east and a rival administration in Tripoli. Oil markets have been wondering who is owning Africa’s largest oil reserves. But so far customers have continued paying for exports worth hundreds of millions of dollars each month through state National Oil Corp (NOC) based in Tripoli, which is under effective control of the rival government. "The government confirms that any contracting or sale outside the legal framework represented by National Oil Corp headed by Mabrouk Bou Seif and based in Benghazi is considered a violation," the official government […]

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