Category:

Libya rebels attack Tripoli’s main airport

Several shells have hit the terminal of Libya’s main airport as rival armed groups fought in Tripoli for a fifth straight day, and gunmen assassinated a female politician in the country’s east. In another sign of growing turmoil, air controllers on Thursday halted work in Tripoli, shutting off much of the oil-producing country from international traffic. Tripoli International Airport has been a battlefield since fighters attacked it with heavy guns on Sunday to wrest control from a rival militia which has been based there since the fall of Libya’s late ruler Muammar Gaddafi in 2011. The conflict is fuelling worries that Libya is on the point of turning into a failed state where a weak central government is powerless to control the militias which helped oust Gaddafi in 2011. The airport fighting pits brigades from Misrata, a western coastal town, against rival fighters from Zintan in the northwest. On […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
Category:

Oil output cut at Libya's el-Feel field

LONDON–Oil production has been slashed at Libya’s el-Feel field, an oil official said Thursday, as a crude output recovery in the country starts to fizzle. The reopening of two key oil ports and a production restart at the country’s largest oil field, Sharara, drove international oil prices to a three-month low last week. But after ramping up to a five-month high, Libya’s oil production started falling again earlier Thursday. Now output is set to decline further after staff cut production at the 130,000 barrel-a-day el-Feel field, which is operated by an Eni SpA joint venture. Eni didn’t return a request for comment. "The field only has five wells under operation, other wells are totally closed," a person at the joint venture said, citing mounting insecurity. Staff are also considering shutting the field altogether, he said. An outbreak of violence in Tripoli–the worst in six months–led to fear of new […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
Category:

Oil output cut at Libya’s el-Feel field

LONDON–Oil production has been slashed at Libya’s el-Feel field, an oil official said Thursday, as a crude output recovery in the country starts to fizzle. The reopening of two key oil ports and a production restart at the country’s largest oil field, Sharara, drove international oil prices to a three-month low last week. But after ramping up to a five-month high, Libya’s oil production started falling again earlier Thursday. Now output is set to decline further after staff cut production at the 130,000 barrel-a-day el-Feel field, which is operated by an Eni SpA joint venture. Eni didn’t return a request for comment. "The field only has five wells under operation, other wells are totally closed," a person at the joint venture said, citing mounting insecurity. Staff are also considering shutting the field altogether, he said. An outbreak of violence in Tripoli–the worst in six months–led to fear of new […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
Category:

More than 5,000 civilians killed in Iraq this year: U.N.

At least 5,576 Iraqi civilians have been killed this year in violence, the United Nations said on Friday in the most detailed account yet of the impact of months of unrest culminating in an assault by Sunni militants through the north of the country. At least 11,665 have been wounded since January, when Sunni insurgents led by al Qaeda offshoot now known as the Islamic State overran the city of Falluja in the western province of Anbar, the U.N. said in a report. Last month, the insurgents seized swathes of northern Iraq, including the area’s largest city Mosul. Of the 2,400 people killed in June, 1,531 were civilians, the U.N. said earlier this month. The report documents what it calls "systematic and egregious violations" of international law by the group now calling itself the Islamic State. The U.N found the group had executed civilians, committed sexual […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
Category:

Egypt Cuts Tax Breaks for Fuel; Few Protest

When President Anwar el-Sadat of Egypt said he intended to raise the price of flour, rice and other subsidized goods in 1977, he ignited days of riots that left more than 70 people dead and stood as a lasting warning to his successors about the perils of forcing impoverished Egyptians to make do with even less. So it was a surprise when, as one of his first major policy initiatives, President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi sharply raised fuel prices two weeks ago, cutting deeply into energy subsidies, the most expensive single part of the government’s sprawling and expensive subsidy system. Even more surprising, perhaps, has been the absence of widespread civil unrest. The relative quiet appeared to signal an acknowledgment among many Egyptians that the fuel prices, which were among the lowest in the world, could not stay that way forever in an economy battered by years of […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
Category:

Egypt: Fuel Price Raise to Increase Taxi Fares By 3-10 Percent – Capmas

Egypt’s Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics (CAPMAS) has released a report saying that the recent increase in fuel prices will increase taxi fares by 3-10 percent. The Egyptian government recently increased fuel prices by up to 75 percent in an effort to decrease the budget deficit and reduce an economic burden that has increased in the past three years due to political turmoil. Cairo Governor Mostafa Saeed has promised that the raise would not affect public transport fares. Egypt has also increased electricity prices.

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
Category:

Libya’s Oil Production Rises Faster Than Expected

Libya’s oil production has risen to about 554,000 barrels a day as production ramps up faster than expected at the country’s largest field Sharara, an oil official said Tuesday. The official at state-run National Oil Corp. said the production includes about 50,000 barrels a day of condensates and is up from 470,000 barrels a day Monday. The news come despite intense fighting in recent days at Tripoli airport, in the worst violence in six months in the capital.

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
Category:

Libya's Oil Production Rises Faster Than Expected

Libya’s oil production has risen to about 554,000 barrels a day as production ramps up faster than expected at the country’s largest field Sharara, an oil official said Tuesday. The official at state-run National Oil Corp. said the production includes about 50,000 barrels a day of condensates and is up from 470,000 barrels a day Monday. The news come despite intense fighting in recent days at Tripoli airport, in the worst violence in six months in the capital.

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
Category:

Total Pulls Some Expat Employees From Libyan Capital Amid Violence

France’s Total SA said Tuesday it had started pulling out some expatriate employees from Tripoli as the worst clashes in the Libyan capital in six months start affecting the oil industry. The new challenge to the country’s most strategic sector suggests a Libyan oil-production recovery that has pushed crude prices lower may still be fraught with risk. A spokeswoman for Total told The Wall Street Journal it had opened a Malta office this year "to adapt the number of expatriates present in Tripoli to the evolution of the security situation. That’s what we are currently doing given the situation in the airport." A Libyan official said the French company is now considering a force majeure on its operations in the country. The Total spokeswoman said no force majeure has been decided. A force majeure offers legal protection to a company if exceptional circumstances limits its ability to fullfil its […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
Category:

Libyan militia tighten control of Tripoli airport

Libyan militia fighters with anti aircraft guns and mortars fanned out on Tuesday across Tripoli’s airport, transformed into a battlefield by two days of fighting that has cut the Libyan capital off from the outside world. U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said Washington was working to help end to violence that has brought the north African country to the edge of chaos three years after the uprising that toppled dictator Muammar Gaddafi. At least 15 people have been killed in the capital and the eastern city of Benghazi since Sunday. Fighting between rival militias at the capital’s airport damaged the control tower and wrecked 11 civilian aircraft parked on the tarmac. The main terminal building has been turned into a field hospital. In Benghazi, irregular forces loyal to renegade former general Khalifa Haftar, a former Gaddafi ally, bombarded Islamist militia bases as part of […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple