OPEC can make up for the loss of any crude production from Libya, Qatari Oil Minister Mohammed Saleh al-Sada said, after prices last week surged to a two-year high.
Al-Sada told reporters in Doha Sunday there is no shortage in oil supply. Concern that political upheaval in North Africa and the Middle East would disrupt supplies drove the price of crude to US$103.41 a barrel last week, the highest level since September 2008. Libya holds the largest proven oil reserves in Africa.
Al-Sada’s comments echoed those of a Saudi Arabian oil official, who said on Thursday there was no reason for oil prices to rise because Saudi Arabia and OPEC wouldn’t allow shortages to exist. Qatar and Libya are among the 12 members of OPEC, which pumps about 40 percent of the world’s oil. Saudi Arabia is the group’s largest and most influential member.
Photo: EPA
Their remarks came after more than a week of turmoil in Libya, with production scaled back by almost 90 percent and many employees fleeing and ships not coming to collect its products.
The seaside Brega complex, about 200km west of the rebel stronghold of Benghazi, collects crude oil and gas from Libya’s fields in the southeast and prepares it for export. It also produces some petrochemicals and refined products for local consumption.
Since the crisis began on Feb. 15, however, General Manager Fathi Eissa said the facility has had to scale back production dramatically from 90,000 barrels of crude a day to just 11,000.
There are no reliable figures about the impact of the uprising against Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi on Libya’s oil exports, but facilities across the country have been forced to make sharp cuts. Most Libyan ports — the main method of export — also were closed due to bad weather, staff shortages or production outages, according to the International Energy Agency (IEA).
The IEA, citing reports from Western producers, said overall crude production has dropped from 1.6 million barrels per day to 850,000.
“Almost all international oil companies operating in Libya have reported partial or full shut-in of output,” the IEA said a statement on Friday. These companies account for about 72 percent of the North African country’s output. The status of oil fields operated by the National Oil Corp, which accounts for the remaining 28 percent of production, was “still unclear,” the Paris-based agency said.
At Brega, the huge spherical storage containers and reservoirs used to hold natural gas and crude oil are filling up rapidly with no ships to cart away their valuable contents.
Production in the southern fields has been throttled back until Brega can clear some of its capacity.
“At this time, we are operating with the minimum required number of operators, technicians mainly,” Eissa said. “The -production from the fields right now is at minimum, it is not completely stopped, but it is minimum.”
On Saturday, a ship arrived to collect some ammonia and methanol, but it was one of only a few since the troubles began.
The neighboring petrochemical complex of Ras Lanouf, about 100km to the west has experienced similar drops in manpower and has also had to cut production.
Ras Lanouf is also perilously close to the town of Sirte, one of the last holdouts for Qaddafi loyalists in central Libya, raising concern about clashes in the area.
The Gulf of Sidra is critical to Libya’s energy exports. The ports of As Sidra, Marsa el Brega, Ras Lanuf, Tobruk and Zuetina handle about 77 percent of Libya’s oil exports. Allegiances in the Gulf of Sidra and the economic value they represent, therefore, are key to the survival of Qaddafi’s regime.
Many of Brega’s 600 foreign workers — mostly from Britain and other European countries — were preparing to evacuate.
The British frigate HMS Cumberland, which took evacuees from Benghazi to Malta, is set to return to pick up many of Brega’s workers. They missed an earlier evacuation at Benghazi because of the poor state of communications in the country.
Stephen Garrett, a 27-year-old graduate student, always thought he would study in China, but first the country’s restrictive COVID-19 policies made it nearly impossible and now he has other concerns. The cost is one deterrent, but Garrett is more worried about restrictions on academic freedom and the personal risk of being stranded in China. He is not alone. Only about 700 American students are studying at Chinese universities, down from a peak of nearly 25,000 a decade ago, while there are nearly 300,000 Chinese students at US schools. Some young Americans are discouraged from investing their time in China by what they see
Taiwan Transport and Storage Corp (TTS, 台灣通運倉儲) yesterday unveiled its first electric tractor unit — manufactured by Volvo Trucks — in a ceremony in Taipei, and said the unit would soon be used to transport cement produced by Taiwan Cement Corp (TCC, 台灣水泥). Both TTS and TCC belong to TCC International Holdings Ltd (台泥國際集團). With the electric tractor unit, the Taipei-based cement firm would become the first in Taiwan to use electric vehicles to transport construction materials. TTS chairman Koo Kung-yi (辜公怡), Volvo Trucks vice president of sales and marketing Johan Selven, TCC president Roman Cheng (程耀輝) and Taikoo Motors Group
MAJOR DROP: CEO Tim Cook, who is visiting Hanoi, pledged the firm was committed to Vietnam after its smartphone shipments declined 9.6% annually in the first quarter Apple Inc yesterday said it would increase spending on suppliers in Vietnam, a key production hub, as CEO Tim Cook arrived in the country for a two-day visit. The iPhone maker announced the news in a statement on its Web site, but gave no details of how much it would spend or where the money would go. Cook is expected to meet programmers, content creators and students during his visit, online newspaper VnExpress reported. The visit comes as US President Joe Biden’s administration seeks to ramp up Vietnam’s role in the global tech supply chain to reduce the US’ dependence on China. Images on
New apartments in Taiwan’s major cities are getting smaller, while old apartments are increasingly occupied by older people, many of whom live alone, government data showed. The phenomenon has to do with sharpening unaffordable property prices and an aging population, property brokers said. Apartments with one bedroom that are two years old or older have gained a noticeable presence in the nation’s six special municipalities as well as Hsinchu county and city in the past five years, Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房產集團) found, citing data from the government’s real-price transaction platform. In Taipei, apartments with one bedroom accounted for 19 percent of deals last