According to Libya’s National Oil Co. Chairman, Nuri Berruien, the country’s oil industry is slowly regaining strength as the country reconstructs after a long devastating civil war. Damages to oil and gas facilities were estimated to cost hundreds of millions of dollars but the industry is rebounding faster than expected. The Elephant oil field has already began production while the Waha oil field’s restart up is anticipated by the end of the year and should contributed 400,000 barrels a day. There are 600,00 barrels of oil being produced currently with about 140,000 barrels of that going to the refinery. Libya is predicting an increase to 800,000 by the end of this year and projecting to reach pre-war levels (about 1.6 million barrel a day) by 2013. This could mean good things (and big savings) for oil consumers around the world.
Political instability in the Middle East and northern Africa has been the main cause for the rise in oil prices over the last few years. Although Libya isn’t completely stable, officials have been doing a great job restoring the shut down oil fields and reestablishing Libya’s industry. Hopefully now that was has ended and the the political and social chaos has quieted down, Libya can reach its full production potential and prices will start to come down.
"Political instability in the Middle East and northern Africa has been the main cause for the rise in oil prices over the last few years."
ReplyDeleteThis is spot on. There is an interesting interview with American Oil company liaisons in which they describe the effects OPEC and Wall Street speculators manipulate and effect barrel prices. Here's the link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LY420_U4U0I