Page 5 - AfrOil Week 06 2021

AfrOil COMMENTARY AfrOil

Revenue roadblocks being disrupted. Bloomberg reported earlier
One of the key factors driving the conflict has this week that one tanker, the Front Cruiser, had
been disagreement over the distribution of rev- departed Marsa el-Hariga without taking on any
enues from crude oil exports. crude, while another, the Delta Eurydice, had
Broadly speaking, Haftar’s LNA and its allies opted to divert to Es Sider rather than proceed
have repeatedly accused GNA of favouring to Marsa el-Hariga.
Tripoli and its surroundings over the country’s
southern and eastern regions when distributing Foreign interference
oil revenues. GNA has denied these charges, It remains to be seen whether this problem can
but it also agreed to discuss the matter when it be resolved – or whether PFG’s members remain
signed a temporary cease-fire agreement with at odds with the interim government. Either way,
LNA last September and approved a permanent though, Libya’s new leaders will probably have to
ceasefire the following month. face at least one more challenge – namely, the
Under the terms of the ceasefire agreements, challenge of foreign interference.
the parties were expected to negotiate a new The North African country has not been
revenue-sharing deal in short order. Thus far, struggling in isolation. Its civil war has drawn
however, they have not done so. the attention of many other parties, including
This failure has the potential to cause but not limited to the UN, the US, the Euro- Thus far, the
problems, according to Jalel Harchaoui, a pean Union, Russia and several other Arab
senior fellow at the Geneva-based Global Ini- states, as well as Turkey. Some of these parties parties have not
tiative Against Transnational Organized Crime have sought to support the peace process, while
(GI-TOC). Specifically, he told Bloomberg at the others have taken sides. Turkey, for example, negotiated a new
weekend, it could lead LNA to reverse its deci- has offered troops and materiel to GNA, while agreement on
sion to lift the blockade imposed last year on Egypt and Russia have provided technical and
key oilfields, pipelines, refineries and terminals military support to LNA. (Russia, notably, has revenue-sharing
so that Tripoli-based National Oil Corp. (NOC) also offered logistical support to the Wagner
and its subsidiaries could resume production Group, a private Russian mercenary group that
and exports. has played a role in the Libyan conflict.)
In other words, Harchaoui said, Haftar As noted above, the ceasefire agreement
may conclude that blockades will improve his calls for expelling foreign troops from Libya,
chances of securing concessions with respect and PFG members have duly been working to
to revenue distribution. Warring factions might prevent mercenaries from interfering with the
find themselves in “small wars for some key oil operation of oil industry facilities. Even so, the
assets” such as Sharara, the country’s largest oil- other parties involved in the conflict are not
field, he commented. now ignoring Libya. Indeed, Turkey still seems
to harbour suspicions about LNA, if a recent
Workers’ worries story from IHA news agency accusing Haftar of
Meanwhile, there are other developments that secretly setting up his own company in order to
affect access to oil infrastructure. export oil without interference from NOC is any
Libya exports oil via a handful of terminals indication.
on the Mediterranean Sea coast. Those termi- In short, Libya’s new prime minister and
nals suspended or ramped down operations last presidential council are not likely to have an
year, sometimes because of the LNA blockade easy time keeping the oil sector on track as they
and sometimes because they came under phys- prepare for elections in December. They do have
ical attack. a strong incentive to try their hardest, as crude
As noted above, the ceasefire agreements exports are the country’s main source of income.
served to lift the blockade, and the terminals But they will probably have a hard time negotiat-
have resumed exports. However, the accords ing a new revenue-sharing agreement while also
also took note of the fact that foreign merce- keeping up with PFG’s demands and avoiding
naries had played a role in fighting between diplomatic disputes with other countries. ™
the factions – and called for the expulsion of all
troops found to be occupying storage depots,
terminals and other oil infrastructure facilities.
Last November, GNA and LNA agreed to make
the Petroleum Facilities Guard (PFG), a militia
group that has occasionally sided with Haftar,
responsible for this task.
Last month, PFG members tasked with
guarding three coastal terminals went on
strike. They ordered workers at Es Sider, Marsa
el-Hariga and Ras Lanuf to stop loading oil onto
tankers on the grounds that Libyan authorities
had failed to meet their deadline for payment of
several months’ worth of overdue wages.
So far, efforts to resolve the dispute have not
borne fruit, Instead, the PFG members have still
not been paid, and some scheduled loadings are Many oil facilities were damaged in last year’s battles (Image: Wintershall)

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