Libyan Rebels Prepare to Export Oil as Qaddafi Gains Ground

Editor’s Note: As we have pointed out for the last few weeks, this military attack was never about liberation or preserving human rights. It is about regime change and prying the Libyan assets out of Qaddafi’s hands, and eventually into the hands of the globalists.

By Patrick Donahue and Alaric Nightingale
Bloomberg
April 5, 2011

Libyan rebels were pushed back from the central port of Brega by heavy fire from forces loyal to Muammar Qaddafi as the opposition prepared to export crude oil for the first time since the conflict began six weeks ago.

Rebels retreated from Brega after capturing part of it yesterday, the Associated Press reported. Regime forces fired rockets and artillery at the rebels today, sending many of them back to the city of Ajdabiya, the AP reported.

The oil tanker Equator, which can carry 1 million barrels, arrived at the Marsa al Hariga terminal near the port of Tobruk in opposition-controlled eastern Libya at about 2 p.m. time local time, according to AISLive Ltd. ship-tracking data compiled by Bloomberg.

A field guide to Western globalist prized assets on offer in Libya.

Libya’s conflict, which began with an uprising aimed at ending Qaddafi’s 42-year rule, has threatened to grind to a stalemate. The rebels, largely disorganized, have been unable to advance without help from NATO airstrikes.

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization reported that the strikes by the U.S. and allies have destroyed nearly a third of Qaddafi’s heavy weapons, according to AP. The alliance said that Qaddafi’s forces attacking rebel-held Misrata have moved tanks and heavy weapons into city areas where NATO won’t strike them because of the risk of civilian casualties, AP said.

Oil Falls

Oil slipped from its highest level in more than 30 months asChina boosted interest rates to restrain inflation, spurring speculation that demand may decline. Oil for May delivery dropped 22 cents, or 0.2 percent, to $108.25 a barrel at 2:17 p.m. on the New York Mercantile Exchange. It traded as high as $108.78 a barrel yesterday, the highest price since Sept. 24, 2008. Futures have risen 25 percent in the past year.

Libyan rebels have “raised concerns about the lack of funds, as well as issues relating to the marketing and sale of oil and gas in Libya,” Abdul Ilah al-Khatib, the United Nations special envoy to Libya, told the UN Security Council yesterday, according to astatement on the Council’s website.

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Libyan “Rebel Council” Forms Oil Company to Replace Qaddafi’s

Editor’s Note:  Please. Listen people, it’s time for a reality check. We’re going to just throw this out there for any of our confused readers who still believe- in their heart of hearts, that this attack on Libya is for humanitarian reasons. If you fall into this camp, well… you’ve been duped again. Iraq should have your wake up call, but we are aware that many people suffer from short-term memory loss. At some point, you will have to wake up and realise that powerful western financial interests are steering the economic takeover of these sovereign states, like parasites feeding off the resources of their new host. So we only ask that next time, when the sparks fly, watch as the players move in for the kill…

Bloomberg Financial reports:

Libyan rebels in Benghazi said they have created a new national oil company to replace the corporation controlled by leader Muammar Qaddafi whose assets were frozen by the United Nations Security Council.

The “Transitional National Council” released a statement announcing the decision made at a March 19 meeting to establish the “Libyan Oil Company as supervisory authority on oil production and policies in the country, based temporarily in Benghazi, and the appointment of an interim director general” of the company.

THE WESTERN PRIZE: Grabbing Liyba's resource assets at the point of production.

The Council also said it “designated the Central Bank of Benghazi as a monetary authority competent in monetary policies in Libya and the appointment of a governor to the Central Bank of Libya, with a temporary headquarters in Benghazi.”

The Security Council adopted a resolution on March 17 that froze the foreign assets of the Libyan National Oil Corp. and the Central Bank of Libya, both described in the text as “a potential source of funding” for Qaddafi’s regime.

Libya holds Africa’s largest oil reserve. Output has fallen to fewer than 400,000 barrels a day,Shokri Ghanem, chairman of the National Oil Corp., said on March 19. The country produced 1.59 million barrels a day in January, according to estimates compiled by Bloomberg. Exports may be halted for “many months” because of sanctions and unrest, the International Energy Agency said.

‘Extended Shutdown’

Brent crude for May settlement on the London-based ICE Futures Europe exchange fell 0.3 percent to $114.62 as of 8:50 a.m. It surged to a 2 1/2-year high of $119.79 on Feb 24 as geopolitical tensions spread throughout the Middle East and North Africa.

The European benchmark will average $109 a barrel this year, up from a previous forecast of $98, on expectations of an “extended shutdown” of Libyan oil supplies, Societe Generale SA said in a monthly review dated yesterday.

The statement by the Transitional National Council also said the rebels would “urgently prepare a file on the referral of Qaddafi and his gang and his associates involved in the killing of Libyans to the International Criminal Court.”

The Security Council referred allegations of human rights violations by the Qaddafi regime to the court in a resolution adopted on Feb. 26.

The statement said the council would begin choosing ambassadors to foreign countries.

The UN said yesterday that Deputy Ambassador Ibrahim Dabbashi, who broke with the regime last month and said he was then representing the rebels, was no longer Libya’s accredited ambassador. Ambassador Mohammed Shalgham, who also broke with the regime, similarly lost his accreditation when Qaddafi appointed former UN General Assembly President Abdussalam Treki as envoy to the world body.

Treki hasn’t presented his credentials yet to Secretary- General Ban Ki-moon, a prerequisite for officials taking the post.

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