Page 10 - AfrOil Week 10 2022

AfrOil PERFORMANCE AfrOil

The disruption may have probably brought Lib- NOC’s suggestion had garnered any support.
yan oil output, reported to be at 1.2mn bpd as
of the end of February, down to about 900,000 UN adviser’s call
bpd. It was also costing the country more than However, Stephanie Williams, the UN spe-
LYD160mn ($34.67mn) per day, said an official cial adviser on Libya, called earlier this week
from National Oil Corp. (NOC) cited by Argus. for bringing the Sharara and El Feel oilfields
Additionally, the shutdowns had an impact back online as global prices continued rocket-
on Libya’s output of refined petroleum products. ing upward, the Libya Observer reported. The
Crude from the Sharara field is a key source of blockade of the fields has deprived the Libyans
throughput for the 120,000 bpd Zawiya refin- of much-needed revenues, Williams explained.
ery, and NOC’s chairman Mustafa Sanalla said Meanwhile, Argus noted the possibility that
on March 6 that the stoppages were “making it the shutdown at the oilfields had been linked to
impossible” for his company to meet its fuel sup- an incident on February 27, in which members
ply commitments. of the Tuareg tribe mounted a road blockade
“As such, we are obliged to declare the state of and threatened to cut off the main access route
force majeure in line with standard practice in to Sharara unless they were granted national ID
the oil industry,” he said in a press release. numbers.
Sanalla also blamed gangs led by Moham- Reuters, meanwhile, quoted an oil official in
med Al-Bashir Al-Garj for the valve closures Tripoli as saying that Sharara and El Feel had
that have cut off crude oil flows from Sharara been taken off line by members of a militia from
and El Feel and claimed that the same armed the town of Zintan. Local tribal leaders are cur-
groups had been responsible for previous shut- rently holding negotiations with the militia in
downs at Sharara. the hope of securing a deal that will allow pro-
Additionally, he suggested that unscrupulous duction to resume, said the official, who spoke
individuals were seeking to steal oil in order to on condition of anonymity. ™
benefit from recent price increases on world
crude markets.
“Who benefits from these closures which
come after the price jump that exceeded $100
per barrel? The same gang closed these valves
between 2014 and 2016, which coincided with
a similar price boom,” Sanalla charged. “Suspi-
cious links and indications strongly suggest that
the closures are driven by hidden hands aiming
to drag the country into chaos.”
He further stated that NOC had urged Lib-
yan authorities to take action against those
responsible for disrupting oil flows from the two
fields. “A communication has been submitted to
the Public Prosecutor’s Office to take deterrent
and targeted measures to identify the planners,
executors and beneficiaries behind this criminal
act of theft and sabotage,” he said, according to
the press release.
As of press time, it was not clear whether Sharara and El-Feel are in the Murzuq basin in south-west Libya (Image: EIA)

Italy set to expand Algerian gas purchases

ALGERIA ITALY could be importing as much as 30bn Russia, which delivered 29 bcm last year.
cubic metres per year of Algerian gas within a “Italy will be able to count on additional sup-
few months, the North African country’s ambas- plies of Algerian gas at the same price to reach,
sador said on March 4, marking a steep increase and perhaps exceed, 30 bcm already in the next
from the 21 bcm Rome took last year. few months,” Ambassador Abdelkrim Touahria
Italy and other European countries are told newspaper Il Sole 24 Ore.
scrambling for ways of reducing their depend- Italy imports Algerian gas via the Transmed
ence on Russian gas following the conflict in pipeline under the Mediterranean Sea. Import-
Ukraine. In late February, the government ing more “could, if not completely eliminate,
announced it would prepare a series of “excep- at least considerably reduce the effects of the
tional” measures to ease the risk of a disruption Ukrainian crisis and sanctions against Russia
in Russian gas, including a push to diversify its on the Italian energy supply system,” the ambas-
gas import mix. Its largest supplier is currently sador said.

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