Page 13 - AfrOil Week 23 2022

AfrOil PERFORMANCE AfrOil

As a result, in April, Libya exported only 819,000 on social media claimed that the Al-Sahel and
bpd of crude, down from nearly 1mn bpd in the Al-Erada oilfields might halt production the
previous month. following week due to lack of storage capacity,
Meanwhile, Libya’s Oil Minister Mohamed leading to another reduction in gas supplies to
Oun said recently that the closure of the coun- GECOL. ™
try’s main oilfields and ports was causing the
country to lose more than $60mn per day.

Gas cuts
In related news, Libya’s state power utility,
the General Electricity Company of Libya
(GECOL), warned last week that serious dam-
age to the national power grid might occur if
protests and other actions leading to the closure
of oil and gas fields continued to affect natural
gas deliveries to power stations.
If gas supplies to thermal power plants
(TPPs) are cut, new outages will follow, GECOL
explained in a press release.
The Sirte Company for Gas had said earlier
it would cease supplies to TPPs due to a halt in
gas production. Meanwhile, reports circulating The partial shutdown reduced Sharara’s output to 182,000 bpd (File Photo)

POLICY
Liberia says it will make no big changes in

fuel price regime before the end of June

LIBERIA LIBERIA’S Ministry of Commerce and Indus- Additionally, it said it would continue to
try said in a statement on June 3 that it did inform the public as the situation unfolded.
not intend to make any drastic changes in the It is not clear that the ministry’s statement had
domestic fuel pricing regime before the end of the desired effect. Front Page Africa reported on
this month. June 7 that while Liberian fuel inventories did
In the statement, the ministry explained that appear to be filling up, local consumers were
it would keep gasoline and jet fuel prices at their also complaining of supply shortages, rising fuel
current levels until the end of June and would prices and knock-on effects, such as inflation
make a slight reduction in the price of diesel in other sectors of the economy. Licensed fuel
fuel. It did not say exactly how large this price importers are widely suspected of not upholding
cut might be. their promises to deliver gasoline and diesel to
The ministry stated that it had decided retailers, it added. ™
against making major changes in the pricing
regime in view of the “disruptions to the global
supply chain posed by COVID-19 and now the
subsequent Russia-Ukraine war, which greatly
affects cost of freight and sourcing of commodi-
ties from international suppliers.” Despite these
challenges, it added, the government is commit-
ted to ensuring that the country has adequate
supplies of fuel and other essential commodities.
To this end, it said, the Ministry of Com-
merce and Industry has been working with
importers with the goal of loading Liberian
inventories with enough petroleum products
to cover about two months’ worth of consump-
tion. It did not comment on the success of these
efforts but said it “appreciates those fully execut-
ing their supply mandate as licensed importers
of [fuel]”. Monrovia still insists that the country has adequate fuel inventories (Image: Conex)

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