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Tag Archives: oil
Tripoli pipeline attack ‘endgame’ for Gaddafi
Colonel Gaddafi’s regime in Libya could be entering a final, decisive phase, with reports that the main pipeline supplying oil to Tripoli has been cut.
Sources inside Libya have confirmed a Reuters news agency report last week that rebels had severed the pipeline that connects the Awbari oilfield in southern Libya to the Az-Zawiya refinery outside Tripoli.
A spokesman from the Benghazi-based rebel Interim National Council is quoted as saying that the aim is to “drain Tripoli”.
There are also suggestions that anti-Gaddafi forces have managed to cut the gas pipeline used for power generation in Tripoli.
The Az-Zawiya refinery is still working, which suggests there is a store of crude oil to supply the Libyan capital. However, it is thought only to be producing at one-third capacity at present.
John Hamilton, contributing editor for African Energy, believes this could represent the start of the endgame for Colonel Gaddafi and his supporters.
“If you take the view that the rebels can’t defeat Gaddafi militarily by invading Tripoli, and that Nato can’t defeat him from the air, then the only option is to squeeze him out of resources – and the most important of those is fuel,” he told Channel 4 News.
“The rebels seem to have made a definitive decision that they want to cut off Gaddafi’s supply of gasoline, in particular. And the logic is that, having cut off the pipelines, they would also do their best to stop road transport.”
But it is almost impossible to assess how much crude oil the regime has in storage, which makes it hard to estimate how long Colonel Gaddafi can continue to enjoy popular support in the west of the country.
“The difficulty with the Libyan power sector,” says John Hamilton, “is that there is no data. It’s impossible to say with any degree of certainly how much power is being used, what will happen, and how many power stations they need still to be operating.”
Yesterday Luis Moreno-Ocampo, prosecutor at the International Criminal Court in the Hague, suggested that the Libyan leader’s days were numbered.
“I don’t think we will have to wait a lot. I think if we have enough energy within the states – in two or three months it is game over.”… Read More
SEC Eyeing Exxon Mobil’s Ties To Libyan Sovereign Fund
By Joe Palazzolo
The Securities and Exchange Commission has requested information from Exxon Mobil Corp. about possible payments related to Libya’s sovereign-wealth fund, the company said over the weekend.
“We received a request for information from the SEC and are cooperating and responding,” a spokesman for the U.S. oil giant told Dow Jones Newswires, confirming a report in the Oil Daily newsletter.
The disclosure comes as the SEC is examining whether Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and other financial firms might have violated bribery laws in dealings with LIA.
The Wall Street Journal reported 
earlier this month that regulators were homing in on a $50 million fee Goldman initially agreed to pay as part of a proposal by the New York company to help the fund recoup losses. The $50 million payment was never made.
The SEC has asked banks and private equity firms to turn over information about their dealings with national public pension funds and sovereign-wealth funds, as part of a separate anti-bribery probe. … Read More
Video: Scaroni Says ‘No Damage’ to Eni’s Facilities in Libya
Paolo Scaroni, chief executive officer of Eni SpA, talks about the company’s operations in Libya and investing in gas. He speaks at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum with Ryan Chilcote on Bloomberg Television’s “On the Move.”… Read More
Informed Consent: Libya not a War for Oil
By: Professor Juan Cole
The allegation out there in the blogosphere that the United Nations-authorized intervention in Libya was driven by Western oil companies is a non-starter. The argument is that Muammar Qaddafi was considered unreliable by American petroleum concerns, so they pushed to get rid of him. Nothing could be further from the truth. Bloomberg details the big lobbying push by American oil companies on behalf of Qaddafi, to exempt him from civil claims in the US.
The United States in any case did not spearhead the UN intervention. President Obama and Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, along with the Pentagon brass, considered the outbreak of the Libya war very unfortunate and clearly were only dragged into it kicking and screaming by Saudi Arabia, France and Britain. The Western country with the biggest oil stake in Libya, Italy, was very reluctant to join the war. Silvio Berlusconi says that he almost resigned when the war broke out, given his close relationship to Qaddafi. As for the UK, Tony Blair brought the BP CEO to Tripoli in 2007, and BP had struck deals for Libya oil worth billions, which this war can only delay. … Read More
Cyber Hackers Advised U.S. on Attacking Libya Oil Industry
Private computer experts advised U.S. officials on how cyberattacks could damage Libya’s oil and gas infrastructure and rob Moammar Gadhafi’s regime of crucial oil revenue, according to a study obtained by hackers.
An anti-Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi rebel, sits with an anti-aircraft machine gun in front the oil refinery in Ras Lanouf, Libya. (Hussein Malla/AP Photo)
It remains unclear who commissioned “Project Cyber Dawn” and how much of a role the U.S. government played in it, but it shows the increasing amount of work being done by private companies in exposing foreign governments’ vulnerabilities to cyber attack.
“For the private sector to be making recommendations … that’s a level of ambition that you would not have seen until very recently,” said Eli Jellenc, a cyber security expert with VeriSign Inc. who is not linked to the study or its authors.
The study outlined ways to disable the coastal refinery at Ras Lanouf using a computer virus similar to the Stuxnet worm that led to a breakdown in Iran’s enrichment program late last year. It catalogued several pieces of potentially exposed computer hardware used at the refinery.… Read More
Libyan rebel NOC head says oil output will take months to restore
The newly appointed director of the Libyan rebel National Oil Company said Sunday that he believed it would take 10 months to a year after hostilities end for Libya to restore its oil production to the pre-crisis level of 1.6 million b/d.
“Not before a year after battles are over. It will take 10 to 12 months before we can start producing the 1.6 million b/d like we used to,” Nouri Burruien said during an interview in Cairo.
There had been some damage to oil fields as a result of fighting between troops loyal to entrenched Libyan leader Moammar Qadhafi and rebel forces, he said.
“We are at war. Some of the fields were cannibalized, people were terrorized, and my people needed me. Just two hours ago there was an ongoing battle in Mesla and Sarir fields,” Burruien said when asked why he had returned to Benghazi to take on the post in the rebel administration.… Read More
Libya rebels are not revising oil deals: source
(Reuters) – Libyan rebel officials are in contact with top oil companies that operate in the north African country but no new contracts are being drawn up, a source in the rebel leadership said.
Information and pricing agency Platts reported this week that the rebel National Transitional Council (NTC) was in preliminary talks with Italy over a possible renegotiation of a production-sharing deal for Libya’s Bouri offshore field.
It said the talks might result in the rebels taking charge of the stake in the field owned by Libya’s state National Oil Corporation, which operates Bouri in association with Italy’s Eni.
“We are having talks with top companies that operate in Libya, but we are not making new contracts,” the source in the Benghazi-based national council told Reuters.
Officials in the rebel leadership have played down the likelihood that they will tear up Libya’s revenue sharing agreements with foreign oil majors, saying they will respect contracts signed by NOC.… Read More
Gaddafi forces attack remote oil town-rebels
BENGHAZI, Libya May 7 (Reuters) – Forces loyal to Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi attacked the remote eastern oil town of Jalu in the Libyan desert on Saturday, but the town remains in rebel hands, a rebel spokesman said.
The town, south of the eastern frontline near Adjdabiyah, has been attacked by Gaddafi forces more than once since the uprising… Read More
