International political pressure is hitting the regime of Col. Moammar Gadhafi's Libya where it hurts--fuel imports that could be critical to sustain its war effort against the rebels.
International political pressure is hitting the regime of Col. Moammar
Gadhafi's Libya where it hurts--fuel imports that could be critical to sustain
its war effort against the rebels.
In recent weeks, sanctions blocked a Libya-bound gasoline cargo while Tunisian
activists forced fuel trucks to return empty to their North African neighbor.
While the sanctions have stymied access to cash reserves abroad and crude-sale
revenue, they--along with political pressure from Gadhafi's opponents-- are
also cutting into one of its lifelines.
Like many oil-producing countries,
Libya
has
constrained refining capacity and has long relied on outside supplies for its
fuel. It bought 80,000 barrels a day of refined products abroad in 2010,
according to the International Energy Agency.
The civil war has worsened the situation, leaving many domestic refineries out
of order or in rebel hands, triggering fuel shortages and forcing the country
to search for more fuel abroad.
But late March, the "Breeze A", a tanker transporting products from
Greece
, was
stopped in
Malta
on
its way to
Libya
,
according to an official at the ship's owner, Athens-based Ancora Investment
Trust Inc. The Ancora official said the cargo "couldn't go because of the
sanctions" against Libyan state-oil companies.
In
Tunisia
,
activists who had helped topple Zine El Abidine Ben Ali in January, also
stopped three large fuel trucks that had come from
Libya
to
refill, official agency Tunisie Afrique Presse reported March 31. The activists
were concerned the fuel could be used by Gadhafi's forces against opponents.
Oil products are a well-known vulnerability for countries under sanctions. Last
year, the
U.S.
enforced measures specifically targeting
Iran
's
gasoline imports. That forced the Islamic Republic to curtail its consumption
and to forego lucrative petrochemicals exports for a boost in domestic fuel
production.
But while
Iran
has
long been helped by its nationals abroad, opponents to Gadhafi are actively
scrutinizing shipments they suspect could be heading for
Libya
.
On March 17, a Libyan resident in
Malta
,
acting on behalf of opponents, filed for a precautionary warrant of arrest for
a tanker, his lawyer Louise Anne Pulis said. The opponents feared it was bound
to
Libya
after
rebels in
Benghazi
intercepted a fuel vessel destined for the regime a few days earlier, she said.
A local court acceded to the request, based on sanctions and humanitarian
grounds, and the tanker was only allowed to leave empty, the lawyer added. However,
Oiltanking
Malta
,
which operates the terminal where the ship was stationed, denied in a statement
that
Libya
was
the vessel's next port of call.
Unlike
Iran
,
Libya
's
fuel snags also come amid a military effort--where gasoline is known to play a
key role.
According to "the Prize," Daniel Yergin's epic saga on oil politics,
the British feared they could be defeated in World War I because of fuel
shortages. The Germans lost the subsequent international conflict in part
because they failed to access huge oil fields in
Azerbaijan
and
the
Middle East
, the book says.
Yet
Libya
's
fuel situation doesn't appear to have reached breaking point. The government
imported 19,000 metric tons of gasoline on a Libyan ship, Agence France Presse
reported last week, citing an unnamed official close to National Oil Corp.
Speaking to Dow Jones Newswires Sunday, NOC's chairman, Shokri Ghanem, said the
Zawiya refinery was also still supplying the fuel needed for power stations.
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