Libye: Hausse de la production pétrolière (Libya increases its oil output)

Les deux protagonistes de la crise en Libye, le chef du gouvernement d’union (GNA) Faïez Sarraj et le maréchal Khalifa Haftar, se sont rencontrés mardi 2 mai à Abou Dhabi, a rapporté l’agence loyale aux autorités de l’Est libyen. Le maréchal Haftar dirige les forces armées des autorités de l’est du pays, rivales du GNA, gouvernement adoubé par l’ONU et installé à Tripoli (ouest). Toutefois, malgré les violents combats qui opposent différentes factions armées en Libye, la production du pétrole, principale ressource du pays, a fait un bond significatif.

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Foreign Policy Diary – Libya’s Instability Threatens Regional Security

Though Syria and Iraq are the main theaters of global standoff and terrorist activity in recent years, there is another country that also draws the attention of the world powers: #Libya. Since the fall of Muammar Gadhafi in 2011, the war-torn country has been in a constant crisis fueled by the West’s inability to implement any kind of a peace settlement involving a wide range of competing entities operating in the country.

The Drug-Smuggling Saudi Prince: And the Story of Captagon, NATO, ISIS, Libya/Syria & the Nazis…

What happened this week in Lebanon with a Saudi prince?

The facts: Saudi prince is being accused of royally mishandling its position.

#Saudi prince detained in the largest drug bust in Beirut airport's history. 2 tonnes of Captagon pills + cocaine. pic.twitter.com/lonEFkVrIg

— Haidar Sumeri (@IraqiSecurity) 26 Octobre 2015

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Prince Abdel Mohsen bin Walid bin Abdulaziz was detained Monday along for allegedly trying to fly two tons of drugs out of Lebanon aboard his private plane at Beirut International Airport, according to multiple reports.

“The smuggling operating is the largest one that has been foiled through the Beirut International Airport,” a source told Agence France-Presse.

Airport security seized 40 suitcases allegedly stuffed with more than 4,000 pounds of the amphetamine Captagon and cocaine.

Prince Abdel, 29, and four others were examined  by Lebanon’s customs authority, according to CNN.Lebanese TV station Al Mayadeen also said that 40 packages of drugs, weighing 2 tons in total, were confiscated.

The prince was arrested and taken in for questioning along with the four other people

Captagon — which produces euphoria and hyperactivity — is the brand name for phenethylline, a stimulant popular in the Middle East that is reportedly used by ISIS in Syria.

“The nature of the psychoactive ingredients in such tablets is not always clear, but reports suggest that amphetamine trafficked from South-East Europe is the main ingredient in Captagon tablets found in the consumer markets of the Middle East (notably Saudi Arabia), frequently alongside caffeine,” the U.N. office says on its website.

People are routinely killed in Saudi Arabia for drug offenses. A Pakistani smuggler was executed by government officials just hours after Prince Abdel was busted, according to Salon.

Last month, Prince Majed bin Abdullah bin Abdullah bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, was arrested in Los Angeles on Sept. 25 following a wild sex-filled weekend at his Beverly Hills mansion. Felony charges of sexual assault and harassment were dropped by the Los Angeles District Attorney’s Office, but he still faces a few misdemeanors that could land him in the slammer.

Three female former staffers are suing that prince, claiming he forced them to stay at his LA pad and perform various sex acts in late September, according to court documents.

War turns #Syria into major #Captagon producer, consumer (+ a #Saudi prince into a druglord) https://t.co/XiXc6yqABl pic.twitter.com/OB8xGaTm37

— маяковский (@moscow_ghost) 29 Octobre 2015

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BP, Total writing off oil assets in Libya because of the continuous conflict

Libya has become a major headache for European oil companies as a four-year conflict forced BP to join Total in writing off millions of dollars in investments in the North African country.

BP on Tuesday the 28th of July said it had taken an impairment of almost $600 million in the second quarter as fighting forced it to suspend an oil exploration campaign. The unexpected charge was the main reason BP’s earnings fell short of analysts’ estimates.

“There is significant uncertainty on when drilling operations might be able to proceed,” London-based BP said in a statement.

The charge comes three months after Total became the first European oil major to take an impairment in Libya, writing off $755 million from onshore assets. That’s an ominous sign for firms including Eni SpA and Repsol SA, which have yet to mark down the value of their assets in the country.

• The Libyan oil industry has been in chaos since the 2011 rebellion that ended Moammar Gadhafi’s 42-year rule.

. Militias backed by rival governments in Tripoli, the capital, and Benghazi, the main city of eastern Libya, have this year attacked oil fields and terminals that were largely spared during the initial phase of the uprising. Es Sider and Ras Lanuf, the nation’s largest and third- largest oil export ports, have been shut down since December following attacks. In February, gunmen stormed and briefly captured the Al-Mabruk field operated by Total. Eni, which reports first-quarter results on Thursday, has sustained output in Libya despite growing insecurity. Like the Italian company, Madrid-based Repsol hasn’t written down its assets in the country, although it has suffered from intermittent production outages. BP returned to Libya in 2007 after a more than 30-year hiatus, signing a deal with the country’s state-owned oil company to spend $900 million searching for oil and gas in a portion of the country the size of Belgium. The deal was part of the international rehabilitation of Libya after the Qaddafi regime gave up its program of weapons of mass destruction and paid compensation to the victims of terror attacks. Libya is producing less than 400,000 barrels a day as the conflict that has divided the North African country cuts electricity supply to oil fields and prevents maintenance. Before the revolution, Libya pumped about 1.6 million barrels a day.

#Libya‘s #oil output in 2015: stabilized but still crippled. pic.twitter.com/eirBlWSQeW

— Matthew Reed (@matthewmreed) 30 Juillet 2015

If #US involvement in #Libya was about securing flow of #oil it wasn’t very successful cc: @VictorCleaner pic.twitter.com/ed4oxu6veH

— MacroTourist (@Gloeschi) 29 Juillet 2015

Source: Bloomberg

Related articles about Libya :

• Lessons from Obama’s War in Libya

• Libyan Crisis (2011–present)
• Libyan Civil War detailed map
• The Origins of the US War on Terror: Lebanon, Libya and American Intervention in the Middle East (Routledge Studies in Us Foreign Policy)
• From Deep State to Islamic State: The Arab Counter-Revolution and its Jihadi Legacy