Mohamed Gnounou, spokesman of the forces of the UN-backed Libyan Government of National Accord announced pushing Hafter’s forces outside of the Tripoli administrative boundaries.
Forces backing Libya’s unity government said Wednesday they had reseized Tripoli international airport after heavy fighting with rival troops supporting Khalifa Haftar.
“Our forces have fully liberated Tripoli International Airport,” said Mohamed Gnounou in a statement.
S&P Global Platts reported that Libya exported some crude and condensate from its storage caverns at the Zawiya terminal this week, a first from this port in almost four months.
But with the civil conflict still brewing in the volatile North African oil producing powerhouse, a full or sustained return of Libyan oil is unlikely.
“When these barrels do come back, they will face a crowded sweet market place along with an oil market still reeling from a huge demand loss brought upon by the Coronavirus pandemic,” the source added.
The civil war enforced by the warlord Khalifa Haftar in Libya has brought oil production and exports to a grinding halt, creating financial strain on the UN-recognized Libyan government based in capital Tripoli. Till 2014, the North African country on the banks of the Mediterranean Sea was ranked among the top 20 oil-producing countries.
Due to the closure of oil wells and restrictions put by pro-Haftar armed groups, the Libyan economy suffered a loss of $5 billion in January 2020. From 2016-2019, the country has already lost more than $100 billion, as Ibrahim Cadran, an Haftar ally interrupted the oil excavation in the east of the country.
While international energy institutions say that most of Libya’s oil reserves have remained untapped, the conflict has hit extraction of oil from the existing resources. The country’s largest oil and gas facilities, such as Sidra, Ra’s Lanuf, Brega, and Zueitine, are located in the war-torn east of Libya on the Mediterranean coastline.
The Sidra refinery can produce 350,000 barrels of oil every day. The daily production capacities of other refineries like Ra’s Lanuf are 220,000 Zueitine 100,000 and Briga 8,000 thousand barrels. Libya’s hydrocarbon resources used to meet the demand of around 70% of national expenditure. AS much as 93 % of the government revenues and more than 90 % of exports were met by oil revenue until Muammar Gaddafi regime was overthrown in 2011.
The country had recorded the production of 1.6 million barrels of oil in 2010, which dropped significantly due to instability and different groups fighting to take control of resources.
The country’s Central Bank has reduced its reserves to the lowest level in its history to meet the requirements of paying salaries to government employees and basic expenditures on food, health, and education.
The lack of finances has led to severe economic crises in Libya. The country is facing high inflation, depreciation of the local currency, and the rise in public debt.
According to an article published by France 24, Europe tried to reassure Russia during a UN Security Conference video call Tuesday after a French warship intercepted an oil tanker off the coast of Libya under an operation to halt the flow of arms to the North African country.
The news agency added that the European Union representatives spent the closed-door meeting — which Russia requested — explaining the EU’s naval mission to enforce an arms embargo on Libya, which began April 1, according to diplomats who spoke on the condition of anonymity.
The Russian mission stressed the need for Irini to be in compliance with the resolution authorizing it, calling for any renewal to be “unbiased” and to “prevent any imbalances.”
“We will thoroughly study how the operation evolves and see if its modalities are subject to a new Security Council mandate,” they said.
“Irini is covered by the existing resolution and we are looking at a rollover,” German UN Ambassador Christoph Heusgen said of what he called a “very important” part of keeping arms out of Libya.
“We believe this new operation is just a successor of the previous one,” said French UN Ambassador Nicolas de Riviere, comparing Irini to the EU refugee naval mission Sophia.
“It operates under the exact same mandate,” he said.
Diplomats said the interception of an oil tanker by the French ship off the coast of Tobruk 10 days ago was a major topic of conversation during Tuesday’s session.
The Gabon-flagged Jal Laxmi was collecting a multi-million dollar oil shipment but had not received authorization from the Tripoli-based Libyan National Oil Corporation, a specialist told AFP on the condition of anonymity.
The ship ultimately did not dock in Tobruk after the vessel’s owner and insurer became wary of potential sanctions, the specialist said.
“The UN welcomes France’s actions and indeed all efforts to uphold the UN oil embargo,” the UN said about France’s involvement last week.
According to one diplomat, intercepting illegal oil shipments is a lower priority for the Irini mission than controlling illegal arms, for which European ships have carried out around 50 checks on other ships off the coast of Libya since early April.
“There have been multiple and concerted efforts on the part of the UN member states and the UN Panel of Experts to contact all companies and countries involved in this current affair regarding the Jal Laxmi to caution all involved against proceeding,” UN deputy spokesman Farhan Haq said, reiterating that only the Libyan National Oil Corporation could buy or sell oil in the country.
The Libyan Lawsuits Administration said on Wednesday that it had won an arbitration lawsuit at the Cairo Appeals Court against Kuwaiti firm M.A. Kharafi and Sons that wanted to seize $120 million from the assets of the Libyan Investment Authority (LIA) in France, in April 2014, for an Arab arbitration from 2013 that said it should get $930 million in compensation.
Libya’s state National Oil Corporation (NOC) said on Wednesday that it has achieved severely low revenues amounting to the value of (50,525,596.43 million USD) only.
As revenues from crude oil, gas and condensers for the April 2020, marking a sharp and significant decline in revenue and a severe decrease of about 97% compared to what was achieved in April 2019, which is estimated at (1,620,380,524.61 billion dollars), in revenue which is the most severe decline in income for this year.
As the value of petroleum products also declined, marking (zero) revenues for the second month in a row. This income decline is due to the continued illegal closings of the fields, oil refineries and production units
Also, natural gas production rates declined in April 2020, due to the illegal closure of Sidi Al-Syeh, valves which have incurred additional costs and financial burdens on the public treasury to provide alternative fuels (liquid fuel) for operating electric power plants
Mustafa Sanalla, declared in this regard, saying: “The Libyan state continues to mark significant losses in daily oil and gas production for the fourth month in a row, as a result of the unjust blockades and illegal closures of the sources of oil production from fields and export ports by criminal groups whose only concern is to make Libya a failed state and on the verge of bankruptcy, and will increase the suffering of the Libyan citizens, in addition to the impact of these closings on the technical and environmental side, which will cost the National Oil Corporation large sums to maintain oil pipelines and infrastructure that is already collapsing, and the National Oil Corporation will not be able to restore its production capacity Even after the unjust siege is lifted and production is re-enabled.”
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Wednesday that the presence of Russian prisoners in the Libyan capital of Tripoli was the main obstacle to cooperation between the countries.
Lavrov made the comment after talks in Moscow with Deputy Prime Minister Ahmed Maiteeg of Libya’s internationally-recognised Government of National Accord.
The Interior Ministry of Libya’s internationally recognized government in Tripoli announced on Wednesday that the kidnapped girl, Wissal Abdelhafeed, was released.
Wissal was kidnapped two weeks ago from her home in the Kremia area of south Tripoli.
The Interior Ministry said after tracing and tracking the mobile number used by the kidnappers to contact her family, they were able to make a number of arrests. The kidnappers had requested a ransom of US$ 5 million. Some reports say the kidnappers knew the family.
il ended slightly higher on Wednesday but remained below the session’s early highs above $40 a barrel, the highest since March, retreating as doubts emerged about the timing and scale of a potential extension to the pact between OPEC and its allies to cut crude supplies.
Oil prices were supported by a drawdown in U.S. crude inventories in the latest week, but came under pressure as U.S. refined product inventories surged on tepid demand.
“As product demand remains subdued, gasoline inventories showed a solid build, while distillates showed a mammoth one – despite refinery runs being over 3.6 million barrels per day below year-ago levels,” said Matt Smith, director of commodity research at ClipperData.
Saudi Arabia and Russia have a deal to extend oil output cuts by a month, but a policy meeting on Thursday rather than later in June is unlikely, sources said. Earlier in the session, oil fell when Bloomberg reported the Thursday meeting was in doubt.
