Category:

Libya Islamic militias declare control of Benghazi

Islamic hard-line militias, including the group accused by the United States in a 2012 attack that killed the ambassador and three other Americans, claimed control of Libya’s second largest city, Benghazi, after overrunning army barracks and seizing heavy weapons. The sweep in the eastern city is part of a new backlash by hard-liners against their rivals ahead of the sitting of a new parliament. In the capital Tripoli, escalating battles Thursday between militias prompted multiple foreign governments to scramble to get out their citizens as thousands of Libyans fled across the border into Tunisia. The weeks-long surge of violence renewed fears that Libya, which has been in chaos since the 2011 civil war that ousted longtime dictator Moammar Gadhafi, is plunging deeper into civil strife. With a crippled central government and weak army and police, the country’s numerous rival militias have held sway in Libya […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
Category:

Conoco excludes Libya in outlook, posts 2Q gains

said Thursday it saw a strong growth in production from North American shale, but Libyan operations remained shut in for the company. The company said it was discounting Libya in its outlook for the rest of the year. "Production from continuing operations, excluding Libya, was 4 million barrels of oil equivalent per day in the second quarter, essentially flat compared with the same period in 2013," its second quarter report said . "Libya production remained shut in as a result of the Es Sider terminal shutdown." Ras Lanuf and Es Sider combine for as much as half of Libya’s full export potential of 1.3 million barrels per day. Libyan production has suffered because of ongoing skirmishes between pro-government forces and rival militias. Early 2014 output has been limited to around 250,000 barrels oil per day. "The company is raising the midpoint of its 2014 full-year production outlook for continuing […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
Category:

Fighting in Libya threatens Western efforts to help its democracy

Three years after Western powers helped Libyan rebels overthrow dictator Moammar Gaddafi, they have at least temporarily abandoned efforts on the ground to bolster Libya’s foundering democracy. On Wednesday, France evacuated its embassy in Tripoli, where warring militias have traded rocket and artillery fire over the past two weeks in the worst violence in the capital since Gaddafi’s ouster. French ships moved diplomats and French and other European citizens across the Mediterranean to Toulon, just days after U.S. diplomats left by road for Tunisia and then traveled to Malta, where they have set up an embassy-in-absentia. Although Britain has not formally suspended operations at its Tripoli mission, it has removed all but essential personnel and advised all citizens to leave the country. The growing turmoil marks a major setback for a country that just two years ago held its first free elections in four decades. What many Western officials […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
Category:

Third Oil Tank on Fire After Shelling Near Libya Airport

Clashes between rival militias near Libya ’s national airport set a third fuel storage tank ablaze as worsening violence in the country prompted the U.S and Germany to evacuate their nationals. A call by the Libyan government for a temporary truce to tackle the fire was ignored, with militias continuing to shell the area where the fire has raged all week. The government has requested international assistance, and said that Italy had offered to help, a claim subsequently denied by the Italian foreign ministry. “However, Italy continues to evaluate all of the options to furnish aid to Libya,” the foreign ministry said in statement today. The two-week long battle outside the airport has damaged the terminal, control tower and planes parked at the facility as a weakened central government battles armed groups including Islamists and separatist militias. Libya, which holds Africa’s largest crude reserves, has been engulfed in violence […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
Category:

Libya Says Italy to Help Fight Depot Blaze

Libya says seven fire-fighting planes are being sent by Italy and the Italian energy giant ENI to douse the inferno at a Tripoli oil depot. Fighting between militias nearby has prompted more residents to flee. Tunisian media said Tuesday that thousands of Libyans had crossed into Tunisia to escape crossfire near Tripoli rival militias that sparked the depot blaze. The fire had spread to a second storage site on Monday. Libya’s interim government said the Italian government and ENI were sending the planes to stem the blaze. It began on Sunday night, when a rocket hit a large fuel container, compounding two weeks of fighting between the rival militias near Tripoli’s main airport. Flights have been suspended. A local air base was used instead on Monday. France, Portugal and the Netherlands became on Tuesday the latest nations to ship out their citizens or close their embassies in Tripoli. Canada, […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
Category:

Fighters overrun Libyan special forces base

A coalition of armed groups has overrun a major Libyan army base held by allies of a renegade general in the eastern city of Benghazi. Special forces troops of the Saiqa brigade, loyal to Khalifa Haftar, abandoned their base in southeast Benghazi on Tuesday after coming under attack, military officials and residents said. "We have withdrawn from the army base after heavy shelling," Saiqa official Fadel al-Hassi told Reuters. The battle killed at least 30 people, according to agency reports. We have withdrawn from the army base after heavy shelling. Saiqa special forces official Fadel al-Hassi. Benghazi has suffered months-long battles between militias and forces allied with Haftar, who launched a campaign aimed at crushing what he calls "terrorists" and "extremists" including Ansar al-Sharia. According to the official Twitter account of Ansar, a group inspired by al-Qaeda and dominant in Benghazi, said it had taken over the base. In the fighting, a jet crashed after Haftar’s […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
Category:

Oil Market Losing Faith in Libya’s Ability to Ramp Crude

Escalating conflicts in Libya are thwarting a revival of oil output from Africa ’s largest crude reserves after a yearlong blockade of eastern ports, just as Societe Generale SA and Barclays Plc predict rising demand. While the government said in early July that traders could buy cargoes again from Es Sider and Ras Lanuf, the biggest blocked ports, neither has shipped anything. In Tripoli, the capital, firefighters are still battling a blaze at a fuel-storage depot caused by clashes between militias that have been struggling for political power in the three years since the ouster and killing of longtime leader Muammar Qaddafi . Brent crude futures have been trading as if supplies would be ample. Near-term contracts are priced at a discount to deliveries later in the year, a pattern known as contango, since July 8, the longest stretch in four years. Societe General and Barclays are among the […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
Category:

Algeria's gas role questioned

Algeria’s role as a key supplier of natural gas to Europe should be reviewed given production declines, the European Council on Foreign Relations said Tuesday. The European Union spends an average $1 billion per day on energy imports. More than 60 percent of the region’s gas supplies come from foreign suppliers, notably Russia, Norway and Algeria respectively. A policy brief published Tuesday by the European Council on Foreign Relations said the EU has a short-sighted stance on Algeria, which should be viewed as an "unreliable partner." Mansouria Mokhefi, special adviser for the Middle East and North Africa at the French Institute of International Relations and author of the report, said that, while Europe is eager to diversify an energy sector dependent on Russia, Algeria may not be a good backstop. "Algeria’s sharp rise in domestic energy consumption and concurrent decline in gas production suggests that Algeria […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
Category:

Algeria’s gas role questioned

Algeria’s role as a key supplier of natural gas to Europe should be reviewed given production declines, the European Council on Foreign Relations said Tuesday. The European Union spends an average $1 billion per day on energy imports. More than 60 percent of the region’s gas supplies come from foreign suppliers, notably Russia, Norway and Algeria respectively. A policy brief published Tuesday by the European Council on Foreign Relations said the EU has a short-sighted stance on Algeria, which should be viewed as an "unreliable partner." Mansouria Mokhefi, special adviser for the Middle East and North Africa at the French Institute of International Relations and author of the report, said that, while Europe is eager to diversify an energy sector dependent on Russia, Algeria may not be a good backstop. "Algeria’s sharp rise in domestic energy consumption and concurrent decline in gas production suggests that Algeria […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
Category:

Libya Warns of Disaster as Tripoli Fuel Tank Fire Spreads

Libya warned Monday of the risk of a humanitarian and environmental disaster after a second fuel tank caught fire amid heavy fighting at Tripoli airport between rival militias. Nearly 100 people have been killed during two weeks of clashes over control of the airport. The fighting led to the evacuation of the U.S. Embassy in Tripoli on Saturday and the German Foreign Ministry said Monday it had evacuated its embassy as well. A missile late Saturday ignited a storage tank containing petroleum fuel at a complex near the airport. The igniting of a second tank has increased the risk of an explosion at the site, which contains 90 million liters (almost 24 million gallons) of fuel and cooking gas. After requesting international assistance, Libya’s […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple