Category: North Africa

CAIRO/BENGHAZI (Reuters) – Libya’s official government has so far failed to sell oil on its own via an account and middlemen in Dubai, as customers continue to buy crude directly from a state oil firm under the control of a rival government, oil sources said. Libya’s internationally recognised Prime Minister Abdullah al-Thinni said this month that oil sales would be routed though a Dubai bank account belonging to a new state oil company reporting to his government in the east. His government wants to get hold of vital oil revenue as it fights the rival government controlling the capital Tripoli, in the west, for power and territory four years after the ousting of Muammar Gaddafi. The United Arab Emirates is one of the biggest political allies of Thinni. Several oil shipments from the eastern Hariga and Zueitina ports controlled by forces loyal to Thinni have left since his announcement, […]

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Photo Pro-government forces during clashes with  rebels in Benghazi, Libya, this month. Credit Reuters MISURATA, Libya — Libyans have puzzled for four years over what might arrest their country’s disintegration. Feuding factions have consistently reached for guns instead of compromises in their battle to fill the vacuum left by the fall of Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi , ultimately breaking the country into two warring coalitions of militias and city-states. Leaders on both sides vowed that Libya ’s only hope was their own military victory. But now a growing number of politicians on both sides of the conflict say that the dual threats from colonies of the Islamic State and a looming collapse of the economy may finally jolt Libya out of that spiral. In a series of interviews in five Libyan cities on both sides of the fight, political leaders were for the first time trying in earnest to reverse […]

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Gunmen shot at the South Korean embassy from a passing car A bomb has exploded at the gates of the Moroccan embassy in the Libyan capital, Tripoli, security officials say, hours after two people were shot dead outside South Korea’s embassy. There was some damage to cars nearby, but no reports of injuries. The embassy is not currently operational. On Sunday, gunmen opened fire from a passing car on a security post at the South Korean embassy. The militant group Islamic State said it carried out that attack. The device at the Moroccan embassy in the Bin Ashour area of Tripoli was left in a bag at the gate. The blast in the early hours on Monday morning was "very strong, and the house was shaking for few seconds," a witness told the AFP news agency. It was unclear whether there was anyone in the embassy at the time […]

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ENLARGE Fighters from the Libya Dawn militia group after securing the perimeter of the Mellitah Oil & Gas terminal on the outskirts of Zwara in western Libya on Jan. 6. Photo: MAHMUD TURKIA/AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE/GETTY IMAGES Italian energy giant Eni SpA has emerged in recent weeks as the only international oil company still pumping near capacity in war-torn Libya, helped by protection from militias and tribes secured by its local partners. Libya’s security risks have crippled the efforts of rival oil companies such as Total SA of France, Repsol SA of Spain and Marathon Oil of the U.S., which have said they have suspended production onshore in the North African country. The dangers have intensified in the past month with the rise of terrorist network Islamic State in Libya, a new risk in a nation that fractured after the 2011 ouster and death of dictator Moammar Gadhafi. Some of the […]

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Libya’s elected government said it is opening an overseas bank account for crude revenue to bypass rival Islamist authorities in the capital, adding uncertainty to the North African country’s efforts to boost exports. “This measure is meant to ensure liquidity for the government without going through the central bank in Tripoli,” Fathallah Al-Suhaiti, chairman of the elected parliament’s national security and defense committee, said Tuesday by phone from Tobruk in eastern Libya. Libya, holder of Africa’s largest oil reserves, has been split since last year when a coalition of Islamist militias captured Tripoli, forcing the elected government to move to the eastern region. The conflict has damaged or shut oil fields, pipelines and ports, reducing the nation’s crude output to no more than 600,000 barrels a day. Libya pumped almost 1.6 million barrels before the 2011 rebellion that ended Muammar Qaddafi’s 42-year rule. The elected and internationally recognized government […]

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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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