Category: North Africa

Libyan oil production has fallen below 300,000 barrels a day after Islamist militants shifted attacks to energy facilities including the country’s largest oil export terminal, said Energy Aspects Ltd. Output is the lowest since May and down at least 65 percent from a recent high of 850,000 barrels a day in October following the assault on the Es Sider terminal, according to the Energy Aspects estimate. Libya holds Africa ’s largest oil reserves. The fighting last week marked a turning point in the unrest that followed Muammar Qaddafi’s 42-year rule, according to Energy Aspects and Eurasia Group consultants. All the factions, including the Islamist militia coalition known as Libya Dawn, had committed to spare the energy industry that provides 80 percent of public spending. “The latest phase in fighting is a serious development as Libya Dawn is now trying to gain control of oil facilities, which up to now […]

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German energy company Wintershall suspends operations in Libya amid escalation of fighting near oil export terminals. UPI/Mohamaad Hosam TRIPOLI, Libya, Dec. 30 (UPI) — With fighting ongoing in and around Libya oil export facilities, German energy company Wintershall said it had to suspend operations until further notice. "Wintershall traditionally transports oil produced in the Libyan desert to the export facilities in the coastal towns of Ras-Lanuf and Zuetina," the German company said in a Monday statement. "Wintershall does not deliver oil to Es Sider, where export facilities are on fire at this time after intense fighting." The U.N. Support Mission in Libya during the weekend called on all parties involved in the fighting to work together to end what it said was a cycle of violence spiraling quickly toward war. Oil storage depots at the Es Sider port caught fire during weekend fighting. Ahmed al-Mismari, a spokesman for the […]

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* Hariga fields still producing -oil official * Fire at Es Sider oil storage site after fighting * Es Sider, Ras Lanuf ports closed * Brega port open but mostly supplying refinery (Adds comment from Conoco in paragraph 5; U.S. firm to help, in paragraph 6) By Ayman al-Warfalli BENGHAZI, Libya, Dec 29 (Reuters) – Libya’s oil output has shrunk further after blazing oil tanks at a major terminal helped push world oil prices higher and put a strain on the country’s dollar currency reserves. Libya is surviving on a mere 128,000 barrels per day from fields connected to the eastern port of Hariga, an oil official said on Monday, while fighting halted the major ports Es Sider and Ras Lanuf. Total oil output, adding offshore fields and Brega output, is about 350,000 bpd – a fraction of the 1.6 million bpd it produced before the 2011 civil war. […]

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Conflict in Libya, more than three years removed from civil war, leaves key oil storage depot in flames. UPITarek Alhuony. TRIPOLI, Libya, Dec. 29 (UPI) — Around $100 million worth of crude oil has gone up in flames as a result of a blaze burning at a tank storage facility in Libya, the government said. Militants with a group calling itself Libya Dawn launched attacks last week on the port of Es Sider, leaving oil storage depots in flames and at least 19 soldiers dead. The state-run National Oil Corp. confirmed as many as five of the 21 tanks storing oil at the site are in flames, which represents about $100 million worth of crude oil . The storage depot is next to the Ras Lanuf terminal, which has suffered several outages as opposing Libyan forces struggle to fill a power vacuum left over when the regime of Moammar […]

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Libyan oil production has fallen below 300,000 barrels a day after Islamist militants shifted attacks to energy facilities including the country’s largest oil export terminal, said Energy Aspects Ltd. Output is the lowest since May and down at least 65 percent from a recent high of 850,000 barrels a day in October following the assault on the Es Sider terminal, according to the Energy Aspects estimate. Libya holds Africa ’s largest oil reserves. The fighting last week marked a turning point in the unrest that followed Muammar Qaddafi’s 42-year rule, according to Energy Aspects and Eurasia Group consultants. All the factions, including the Islamist militia coalition known as Libya Dawn, had committed to spare the energy industry that provides 80 percent of public spending. “The latest phase in fighting is a serious development as Libya Dawn is now trying to gain control of oil facilities, which up to now […]

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ENLARGE Libya has appealed to Italy, Germany and the United States to send firefighters. Reuters Firefighters worked Monday to extinguish a blaze at Libya’s largest oil terminal, where storage tanks have been burning for days amid fighting. The fire at As Sidra terminal in eastern Libya ignited after a rocket hit an oil storage tank. Some 800,000 barrels of crude have been destroyed. Extremist groups are making a renewed push to seize the country’s oil resources, Libyan Foreign Minister Mohamed Dayri said Sunday, according to the Associated Press. He said the assault on eastern oil terminals was carried out by militias based in the western city of Misrata, who are loyal to a rival Islamist-backed government in the capital Tripoli. The internationally recognized government is based in the eastern city of Tobruk. As Sidra is controlled by anti-Islamist militiamen allied with that government. Crude-oil futures prices closed at five-year […]

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Fires were extinguished at three of five Libyan oil tanks that were set ablaze last week after an attack by militants, curbing the threat of 6 million barrels of crude spilling into the Mediterrean Sea. Libyan firefighters extinguished the fires at three tanks at the Es Sider port, Ali al-Hasy, a spokesman for the Petroleum Facilities Guard, said by phone. International assistance is being sought because the fires may lead to environmental damages in the Mediterranean Sea , al-Hasy said. Libya, holder of Africa ’s largest crude reserves, has been in a civil war since 2011 when dictator Muammar Qaddafi was killed after a 42-year rule. The fires at Es Sider started on Dec. 25 after Libya’s oil guard gave Islmatist militias an ultimatum before air strikes and the Islamists fought back with rockets. Brent oil rose 0.6 percent today to $59.82 a barrel amid speculation that the conflict […]

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Libya ’s government struck from the air at Islamist militias it said shelled the country’s largest oil port today, according to the military unit in charge of protecting export terminals. The strike comes two days after the Petroleum Facilities Guard gave the militias 72 hours to return to Misrata, their main stronghold, to avoid the airstrikes after an earlier attack on the Es Sider terminal. “We decided to order attacks from the air without waiting after the rocket attack on Es Sider,” Ali al-Hasy, a spokesman for unit, said by phone from the port, where loading was halted Dec. 13 after a first round of clashes. Aircraft belonging to the internationally recognized government of Abdullah al-Thinni attacked the artillery unit that fired on the port and bombed positions in Misrata and along the front line in Bin Jawad, 35 kilometers west of Es Sider, he said. The self-proclaimed government […]

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The force defending oil ports in eastern Libya pushed back an onslaught that Islamist militias had started 11 days ago to capture the facilities. “We pushed them back and it’s we who are now attacking them,” Ali al-Hasy, a spokesman of the Petroleum Facilities Guard, said by phone from Es Sider, Libya’s largest oil port. “The oil ports are safe and they suffered no damage. All the fighting took place well outside the ports.” The Tripoli-based Libyan News Agency today reported the death of Tareq Shnena, the commander of the Islamist force tasked with capturing the eastern oil ports. He succumbed to wounds sustained in the fighting near Es Sider, it said, without saying where it got the information. State-run National Oil Corp. on Dec. 13 declared force majeure in Es Sider and the neighboring Ras Lanuf oil port, Libya’s third-largest. The move came after the Islamist-backed, self-proclaimed government […]

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Libya’s oil output fell below its own consumption as fighting spread to Mellitah, a region that hosts the country’s fourth largest oil port, the state petroleum company said. National Oil Corp. already this month declared force majeure at two export terminals, Es Sider and Ras Lanuf, after an attempt by Islamist militias to capture them. Force majeure is a legal status that protects a company from liability when it can’t fulfill a contract for reasons beyond its control. National Oil on Sunday reported clashes in the Mellitah area, Libya’s westernmost oil port. “There is no damage to the facilities till this hour, and the port of Mellitah is still open,” said Mohammed Elharari, the spoksman of the company, by phone in Tripoli, without giving an estimate for the nation’s current oil output. The U.S. Energy Information Administration estimates Libya’s consumption was 239,000 barrels of oil a day in 2013. […]

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