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 )
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 […]
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 […]
ENLARGE Egyptian President Abdel Fattah Al Sisi, right, next to his Sudanese counterpart Omar Bashir during a welcoming ceremony in the Sudanese capital Khartoum on Monday. Photo: Agence France-Presse/Getty Images Egypt, Sudan and Ethiopia took a step Monday to defuse tensions around Ethiopia’s construction of a massive dam on the Blue Nile, which has threatened to upset the geopolitical balance in the region over how to share water from the River Nile. Egyptian President Abdel Fattah Al Sisi, Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir and Ethiopian Prime Minister Halemariam Desalegn signed a declaration in Sudan’s capital Khartoum, pledging to better share the Nile’s waters, an Egyptian presidency official familiar with the matter said. Ethiopia has said the project is necessary to produce much-needed electricity, but the building of the dam has been controversial, with some scientists predicting it could disrupt the flow of the river into Egypt, where it provides much […]
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 […]
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. […]
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 […]
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 […]
An Algerian invitation to fellow oil producers to work together on oil prices attracted only Angola this week, as the latest attempt to counter slumping oil prices failed to ignite. A Nigerian proposal last month to convey an emergency meeting of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries immediately fizzled after the group’s kingpin Saudi Arabia opposed the move. Fears of a mounting oil glut amid resilient U.S. oil production and brimming inventories have driven oil prices down again in recent days—after already halving since last June. Writing on behalf of Algerian President Abdulaziz Bouteflika, oil minister Youcef Yousfi sent invitations to a dozen countries, including Saudi Arabia, Nigeria, Angola and non-OPEC producer Russia, to discuss a concerted response to falling oil prices as part of “consultative meeting” in Algiers on March 16, according to people familiar with the letter. But only Angola’s oil minister José Maria Botelho de […]
Cairo — Egypt signed a deal to import 35 shipments of liquefied natural gas (LNG) over five years with Russian energy company Gazprom on Tuesday, the Petroleum Ministry said in a statement. The deal will see Egypt receive seven shipments of LNG annually for five years. The state’s Egyptian Natural Gas Holding Company signed the deal with the giant Russian firm. Gazprom has an 18 percent share of global natural gas reserves. The two sides will agree on when Egypt will receive shipments in the second half of this year. Signing this deal brings the amount of LNG shipments Egypt has agreed to import to 90 shipments provided by five foreign companies, 49 of which are going to be delivered in 2015 and 2016. These agreements are part of the state’s global tender to import natural gas in order to meet fuel demands of electric power plants, amid a […]
