Africa Press-Nigeria:<\/p>\n
The revival of Libya\u2019s oil industry looks even less certain following recent setbacks suffered by Khalifa Haftar, the commander trying to take over the last swaths of the country outside his control.<\/p>\n
Forces aligned with Fayez al-Sarraj, the prime minister recognized by the United Nations, this week overran the Watiya air base near the capital, Tripoli, in a major blow to Haftar.<\/p>\n
The Russian-backed general effectively rules the country\u2019s eastern and southern regions, and has been trying to conquer Tripoli in the west for more than a year. He halted almost all the OPEC member\u2019s crude production in January to pile pressure on Sarraj to surrender.<\/p>\n
Haftar has long complained that Tripoli, which receives all of the nation\u2019s oil revenue via the central bank, distributes the money unfairly and to the disadvantage of the historically marginalized east.<\/p>\n
Sarraj, who\u2019s supported by Turkey, may now be in a position to attempt to restart the western fields of Sharara, Libya\u2019s biggest, and El-Feel. But Haftar\u2019s past actions suggest he won\u2019t end his blockade of oil ports or allow other fields to open unless he gets a deal giving him a greater proportion of Libya\u2019s energy receipts.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere may be attempts to restart southwestern oil fields but sustained production is something else,\u201d said Bill Farren-Price, a director at Canadian consultancy RS Energy Group. \u201cThe bulk of Libya\u2019s oil production is likely to continue to be disrupted until there are signs that the political process is moving again. That will probably require better international engagement, which is absent right now.\u201d<\/p>\n
Libya\u2019s exports, now just 90,000 barrels a day, stood at 1.2 million in late 2019. Sharara and El-Feel accounted for roughly 400,000 of those. If they came back onstream, it would offset a fraction of the output cuts by OPEC and its allies that have helped Brent crude prices soar 90% in the past month to around $36 a barrel.<\/p>\n
Libya, which has Africa\u2019s largest oil reserves, is exempt from those curbs. The country has been in disarray since a 2011 uprising that led to former leader Muammar Qaddafi\u2019s ouster. Its crude output has never recovered to the level before then of 1.6 million barrels per day.<\/p>\n
A return to full production probably won\u2019t happen until there\u2019s a truce between Haftar\u2019s Libyan National Army and Sarraj\u2019s Government of National Accord, or until one of them defeats the other.<\/p>\n
Haftar is in no mood to back down. His air force said it would soon start \u201cthe largest aerial campaign in Libyan history\u201d to strike Turkish targets.<\/p>\n
\u201cHaftar is definitely suffering a military reversal in and around Tripoli,\u201d said Farren-Price. \u201cBut it seems unlikely at this point that the GNA forces will be able to force a military victory.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Africa Press-Nigeria: The revival of Libya\u2019s oil industry looks even less certain following recent setbacks suffered by Khalifa Haftar, the commander trying to take over the last swaths of the country outside his control. Forces aligned with Fayez al-Sarraj, the prime minister recognized by the United Nations, this week overran the Watiya air base near […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":62,"featured_media":20730,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,15],"tags":[228],"class_list":["post-25363","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-economy","tag-oil-production"],"yoast_head":"\n