Follow along with the video below to see how to install our site as a web app on your home screen.
Note: This feature currently requires accessing the site using the built-in Safari browser.
Never before have so many with so few brain cells, cried so many false tears for such few so often.
How much you want to bet that on 11/7, we see like a billion percent reduction in the "outrage"
Never before have so many with so few brain cells, cried so many false tears for such few so often.
How much you want to bet that on 11/7, we see like a billion percent reduction in the "outrage"
In the latest disruption, security guards re-imposed a strike they called off over the weekend, forcing the closure of Libyas two main crude oil export terminals. Operations had resumed on Sunday at the ports of Es Sider and Ras Lanuf after a two-week stoppage. The two ports have a combined export capacity of around 600,000 barrels per day. The work stoppage came just hours after gunmen wounded a guard and ransacked an oil service center Sunday evening in the eastern oasis town of Awjila. Libyan officials said they believe the attack was linked to competition between militia groups over oilfield contracts and the placement of their members in the newly created national Petroleum Facilities Guard, a force under the direct authority of the Defense Ministry, but made up largely of former militia members who have often fought among themselves.
Last week, Libyan Prime Minister Ali Zeidan warned of the economic consequences of the off-and-on disruption to oilfield, production and export terminals. He said oil exports had plunged by 70 percent a devastating financial setback for Libya, which relies on oil exports for nearly all of its foreign revenues. Oil industry officials said the export terminals at the Es Sider, Amna and Sirtica oilfields had already filled up their storage tanks to capacity and had to shut down production. Libya's oil minister said Monday the government was working to end the disruptions by meeting with the protesters and appointing a new head of the Petroleum Facilities Guard -- but that appointment also appears to have enraged some of the strikers. Groups closed the ports of Ras Lanouf, Zeuitina, Al-Sedra and Al-Hariga, forcing a drop in production to less than 30 percent of normal levels, Zeidan told reporters.
General insecurity adds to the crisis
Over the past few months the oilfields and export terminals have been affected by everything from striking security guards to militias fighting over who should get security contracts. There also has been criminal looting at petroleum service centers and production facilities and fears of terrorist activity by al-Qaida or other jihadist groups. A surge in bombings, assassination and a mass jail breakout in the countrys second-largest city, Behghazi has added to the insecurity. According to the countrys oil minister, Abdelbari al-Aroussi, Libya is now only exporting 330,000 barrels through the port at Zawiya, the one remaining export terminal that so far has been free of disruption or strike activity by guards demanding back pay and better salaries. Oil accounts for more than 80 percent of Libyas gross national production and more than 95 percent of exports. The countrys oil production stood at 1.6 million barrels a day just before the 2011 uprising that toppled Muammar Gaddafi. During the NATO-backed uprising oil production it shrunk to just 60,000 barrels a day, according to the International Energy Agency.
Libyas transitional authorities were quick to encourage foreign oil companies and the Libyan National Oil Corporation to resume production quickly after fighting stopped. In the autumn of 2011, to the surprise of foreign oil experts, they claimed production almost matched pre-war levels. But oil industry insiders told VOA they thought the numbers were exaggerated and output was at least a quarter of a billion barrels a day short of government claims. Some still remain skeptical about government figures. It isnt that hard to play around with the numbers, said a foreign oil consultant, who declined to be named, fearing to do so could jeopardize his future work for Libyas National Oil Corporation. Production did resume quite quickly because everyone took a short cut when it came to repairs and delayed replacing pipelines and equipment that are past their optimum life spans.
Long-term problems
Zueitina and Hariga ports, held by federalist rebels demanding more autonomy from Tripoli, will open immediately while the larger ports, Ras Lanuf and Es Sider, will be freed in two to four weeks after more talks, the government said. Ending the oil port standoff will be a major advance for Libya's fragile government, which has struggled to impose its authority over an unruly nation still in flux nearly three years after the fall of Muammar Gaddafi. "The ports Zueitina and Hariga will be handed over to the state with the signature of this agreement. The protesters are banned from returning or obstructing work at the ports," Justice Minister Salah al-Marghani said, reading out the agreement.
He said the two larger ports will be reopened in no more than four weeks, after more discussions with the rebels. Top rebel leader Ibrahim Jathran confirmed the blockage of Zueitina and Hariga ports had ended. "We did this out of goodwill to build trust, have a dialogue and solve all problems between Libyans by peaceful means," he said in a short speech broadcast by a rebel television station from Zueitina terminal. "We will undertake more measures to strengthen these intentions provided the government fulfills its part," he said, in an apparent reference to the reopening of the remaining ports. "We serve Libya's interests."
Neither side commented on what rebel demands still needed to be negotiated with the government, leaving room for possible delays in reopening the larger ports. Zueitina and Hariga ports account for around 200,000 barrels per day of export capacity, while the larger ports previously shipped around 500,000 bpd of Libya's crude. Storage tanks are full at the ports, and loading the crude will be straightforward. But getting the tanks resupplied from oilfields will take time.
The reopening of the eastern oil ports could bump up Libya's output from around 150,000 bpd, but nowhere near the 1.4 million bpd it produced before last summer. Disputes over Libya's oil resources underscore how weak the government is to confront brigades of former rebels and militias who refused to disarm after Gaddafi's fall and often use their military muscle to strong-arm the state. With its national armed forces still in training, Tripoli's government often finds itself at the mercy of rival militias who are loosely allied with competing political factions in the country's parliament.
CORRUPTION PROBE
