Oil strike items......
Security or lack thereof issues....
Oil production at “virtual standstill” says Energy Committee
By Ahmed Elumami.
The GNC Energy Committee met yesterday to discuss the country’s plummeting oil production (Photo: Energy Committee Facebook Page)
Tripoli, 3 September 2013:
Armed strikes at Libya’s oil fields and export terminals have brought crude oil production in the country to a virtual standstill, according to the Energy Committee of the General National Congress (GNC).
The committee confirmed, in an official statement released after a meeting yesterday, that the decline in production caused by closure of the oil facilities was now hurtling towards zero.
One employee of a major oil firm, however, told the Libya Herald that production was actually down to 60,000 barrels per day (b/d). He added that this was equivalent of zero, because it was not enough to fulfil even local demand.
The committee said that, among the political and economic consequences of the closure of the oil facilities, there would be substantial material losses for the Libyan state. The strikes had caused an imbalance in the budget, he said, which was calculated on the basis that oil production is 1.5 million with the market value of at least $90 per barrel. This has caused disruption across ministries, the committee said.
Losses have been estimated at $3 billion so far.
“The biggest damage resulting from the closure of oil facilities is the reduction in the production of oil and gas, which has caused a deficit in the general budget of the Libyan state,” Energy Committee member Fawzia Karawan told the Libya Herald.
She added that the strikes would “delay development projects of all types” and that Libya would lose respect with oil and gas clients. This, she said, would be reflected in future contracts and current fines for failing to fulfil contracts.
According to a report received by the committee from the deputy governor of the Central Bank of Libya, Karawan said, the continued closure of ports would cause a large fiscal deficit. The state could find itself unable to provide food, medicine, electricity and salaries by 2014, she said.
It said that the protests have also put a stop to petrol imports from abroad, which fulfil 70 percent of the country’s petrol needs. Other problems include power in the eastern and western stations due to lack of the fuel supply interruptions to these stations.
Oil exports down to 160,000 barrels per day: Oil Ministry
By Seraj Essul.
Tripoli, 1 September 2013:
The country’s oil exports have hit a record low since production got back up to pre-revolution levels in 2012, with exports down to just 160,000 barrels per day (b/d).
“We are down to 160,000 b/d now, down from 260,000 b/d a few days ago,” head of the Ministry of Oil press office, Tarek Didaa, told the Libya Herald today.
“Most of the fields operated by the Benghazi-based Arabian Gulf Oil Company (Agoco) are not pumping,” he said, “and most of the country’s oil export terminals are not working.” He added that the only two oil ports that were functioning were Zawia and Al-Hariga, near Tobruk.
A week ago, Deputy Oil Minister Omar Shakmak said that Hariga was exporting again, although this was promptly denied by the terminal’s director, Yassin Hamad, who said strikes by the Petroleum Facilities Guard over pay and conditions continued.
Tonight it remained unclear whether operations were fully back to normal at Hariga.
Local people take on Zueitina protestors
By Seraj Essul.
Tripoli, 3 September 2013:
Zueitina oil export terminal, plagued by strikes and protests for more six weeks, has been stormed by local people determined to get the terminal back up and running.
“Locals went into the terminal to kick the protestors out,” a recently-retired Zueitina employee told the Libya Herald. Two separate protests have kept operations at the port at a standstill, with just two vessels loaded in the last six weeks.
The local people negotiated with some of the older members of the brigades, he said, and persuaded one group of protestors – who say they were promised jobs which have not been forthcoming – to take their protest outside the port to minimise disruption to exports.
The other group, members of the Petroleum Facilities Guard (PFG) participating in nationwide strikes over pay and conditions, apparently said they would continue striking until their colleagues at other terminals returned to work.
Some gunfire was exchanged when the locals entered the port. Protestors fired some shots in the air, so the local people fired back, the former employee said. No-one was injured in the shooting, he said, because it was directed into the air, intended only to scare people. There was no other violence and no-one injured, apart from one man who sustained minor injuries when accidentally hit by a car.
The closure of the port is having a knock-on affect on operations at Zuetina’s oil fields, no longer able to pump oil because all the storage tanks at the fields and terminal are full.
A senior employee at the port told the Libya Herald that the protests at the port had completely halted pumping operations at Zuitina’s fields. “There hasn’t been any pumping at the fields, including the large field 103, for a month because of the Petroleum Facilities Guard,” he said. “Because we are not exporting, the storage capacity has reached its limit at the port and at the fields, so workers have had to stop pumping.”
Security or lack thereof issues....
Man-Made River “cut” – western Libya could face water shortage
By Seraj Essul and Elabed Elraqubi
The $25 billion Man-Made River under construction, to bring water from desert aquifers to the coast
Tripoli and Sebha, 3 September 2013:
Western Libya could face water shortages because part of the Man-Made River from Sebha has been cut by tribesmen protesting the abduction of Anoud Senussi. She was seized by gunmen as she left a Tripoli prison yesterday on her way to Sebha to rejoin her family.
Salah Abu Khazam chairman of Gira local council told the Libya Herald this evening that Margani tribesmen had cut the power to some of the pumps on the western branch of the MMR to the north of Sebha. Though he said that he had not visited the site, he believed that the power supply had been stopped yesterday, shortly after news of Anoud’s kidnap.
It is understood that the tribesmen avoided the main pumping station at Jebel al-Hasauna, 210k north of Gera, because it is well protected. Instead they struck at a smaller pumping area at Shuwair, which is reportedly guarded by Margani tribal members.
The tribesmen restarted the flow a few hours later but have given the government 72 hours in which to find and recover Senussi’s daughter from her kidnappers. Otherwise, they say they will cut the flow permanently. This evening it was understood that water resources minister Alhadi Suleiman Hinshir had flown into Sebha for talks with tribal elders. He told this newspaper that he could only say that negotiations were under way. He added that Prime Minister Ali Zeidan would be making a full statement tomorrow, Wednesday.
The $25 billion MMR brings water from aquifers deep in the desert to the north of the country. The system was designed to have reservoirs storing up to 60 million cubic metres of water. It is unclear just how much water is currently stored in western Libya in these open reservoirs, which critics have long said lose 20 percent of their contents through evaporation.
The temporary stoppage of the MMR was not the only action taken today by angry Margani tribesmen. The north-south A7 highway was blocked from early this morning until around 1:00pm. The road was reopened after the head of Ashweeres local council, Mohammed Salem, led a negotiating team to the protestors.
It is also reported that a flight from Tunisia to Sebha was this afternoon diverted to Tripoli, because of concerns over the security at the airport, which some protestors have said will be closed if Anoud is not released unharmed.
The seriousness of a stop to western Libya’s water supply from the MMR, appeared to be underlined by the news that elders from Zintan may have joined elders from Sebha to take part in the negotiations.
Fears for Anoud Senussi grow
By Hadi Fornaji.
Tripoli, 3 September 2013:
Fears mounted today for the safety of Abdullah Senussi’s daughter Anoud, abducted yesterday minutes after she was released from jail. A member of Congress, who did not want to be named, told the Libya Herald this afternoon that members were afraid that she was dead.
“It will be a disaster,” said the Congress member. “Libya will be attacked by human rights organisations around the world.”
Even before the rumours spread in and around Sebha this evening that she had been murdered shortly after being seized, angry members of the Megraha tribe, of which her family are members, had blocked roads and were theatening to cut off the Man-Made River. “She is our daughter,” said Salah Abu Hazam, head of the local council in nearby Gira in Wadi Ashatti.
Anoud was kidnapped yesterday just 100 metres from the gates of Ruaimi prison in the capital’s Ain Zara suburb. She had been held for 10 months at the women’s section after she was arrested and charged with travelling to the country using a false passport. She claimed she had come to Libya to visit her father in prison. Last week, the Justice Minister Salah Marghani announced she would be released.
She was seized yesterday when five carloads of masked gunmen ambushed the three-vehicle convoy taking her to the airport to fly to Sebha, where her family lives.
The Congress member’s fears about international reaction were already being realised this evening when Amnesty International said that the abduction raised “serious concerns about her safety and the Libyan authorities’ ability to protect detainees held since the 2011 armed conflict”. It proved that Libya could not organise fair trials for Anoud’s father and Saif Al-Islam, the statement implied.
“How can the Libyan authorities claim that they are able to deliver fair trials, and apply the law in the most prominent, politically sensitive cases, when they are manifestly unable to ensure the basic safety of detainees?”, it asked.
Abdullah Senussi’s freed daughter Anoud kidnapped outside prison gates
By Ashraf Abdul-Wahab and Aimen Eljali.
Anoud Senussi during interrogation
Tripoli, 2 September 2013:
Anoud Senussi, Abduallah Senussi’s daughter, was kidnapped by gunmen late this afternoon just after she was released from prison.
According to the Justice Minister, Salah Marghani, she was seized just 100 metres from the women’s section of Ruhaimi Prison at Ain Zara after the convoy she was being transported in was attacked by an unknown armed gang. It had been a well executed plan, he said.
In a statement, elders from the Megraha tribe, of which her family is a member, have accused the Judicial Police of collusion in her abduction; it provides prison security and is responsible for transporting prisoners. The statement says that the attack could not have happened without the Judicial Police’s help, citing as evidence the fact that they had requested to take her from prison but had been refused.
They have given the authorities three days to secure her release.
Marghani has called her kidnapping “a slap in the face of the 17 February Revolution” and that he expected help from everyone “especially the thuwar” to find and free her.
Anoud was arrested in a Tripoli hotel on 6 October after she had entered Libya earlier in the day from Algeria, allegedly on a forged passport. It bore the name Anoud Abdullah Mohamed.
Entering the country on a forged document is a crime under Article 350 of the Libyan Penal Code.
A week ago, the Justice Minister said that preparations were in place to release her, now that she had served 10 months in prison. The announcement surprised many as she had never publicly been found guilty of the charges against her and sentenced.
Despite her incarceration, Anoud was allowed occasionally to visit her father in his prison.
Ali Zeidan should be questioned on his performance, says J&C Party
By Ahmed Elumami.
Tripoli, 2 September 2013:
The Justice and Construction Party (J&C) has called upon the General National Congress (GNC) to investigate Prime Minister Ali Ziedan on the “government’s poor performance”.
The head of the J&C, Mohamed Sawan, has said that the GNC should give a vote of no confidence to Zeidan’s government if it is found to have performed poorly.
“The J&C Party feels that it is important to question Zeidan, especially after the government has failed to resolve some important issues, such as the assassinations and explosions in Benghazi,” J&C spokesman Saleem Bait Al-Mal told the Libya Herald.
Libya is in a difficult phase at the moment, Bait Al-Mal said. He added that it was strange that the Interior Ministry, which he pointed out “plays an important role in maintaining security,” now has no minister, after the resignation of the previous two ministers.
The GNC should remove Zeidan if he fails to provide convincing answers on the assassinations, the shutdown of the country’s oil fields, and the lack of security, said Al-Mal.
Gangs target embassy vehicles
By Houda Mzioudet and Mariam Muttawa.
Tripoli, 2 September 2013:
The Egyptian Consul in Tripoli was victim of a car-jacking today when an armed gang forced him out of his car and stole it. He was reportedly slightly injured in the incident and required hospital attention but was released shortly afterwards.
Security forces later found the car in the Kashlaf area, near Sports City in Tripoli.
The Egyptian Embassy would not comment on the attack despite numerous calls from the Libya Herald.
Last week it was reported that a group attempted to steal the car of the Egyptian Deputy Consul and broke the glass of a side door whilst it was parked outside a hotel in Tripoli.
There has been a number of diplomatic car-jackings in recent weeks, mainly because armoured embassy vehicles have become highly sought after among criminal gangs.
Last week, a Chinese diplomat was shot at by thieves who stole his car. He was unharmed.
Accompanied by his wife, Eskander Xiao was followed by a car when driving back to his house driving his car back to their home in the Siyahiya district, west of Tripoli. The two assailants forced their way into the house, he told the Libya Herald and ordered him to hand over the car keys. He initially resisted but one of the assailants fired shots with a rifle, took the car and ran away.
“One of the attackers was a masked man. Both assailants were following me when I was driving home,” Xiao explained. He contacted the General Directorate for the Protection of Diplomatic Missions, part of the Interior Ministry, which sent security forces to chase the thieves.
After two hours, the car was found in Sarraj, further west of Tripoli.
“We would like to extend our deepest thanks and gratitude to the Libyan Ministry of Interior’s General Directorate for the Protection of Diplomatic Missions as well as the interim government for their efforts in protecting foreign diplomats in Libya,” Xiao added.
He disclosed that the Chinese embassy was considering asking the Libyan government to provide security at the homes of those who work at China’s cultural and commercial offices in Tripoli.
“We wish that there will be consultation between the Libyan authorities and the Chinese embassy about providing security for all Chinese diplomats’ residences. Our mission is to reinforce Chinese-Libyan bilateral relations,” he stressed.
The Chinese embassy in Libya, he said, reserved the right to lodge a criminal lawsuit against the assailants. “But only when the security situation improves,” he added.
In the middle of last month the members of an official Italian training mission were attacked at their house and their two armoured 4×4 vehicles stolen along with other belongings. They were traced to Ghariyan and recovered.
There have been other thefts.
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