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Page added on January 12, 2016
Can ISIS Actually Gain Power Over Libya’s Oil?
As it turns out, Syria was merely a springboard for a much larger ISIS plan—replenishing terrorist coffers by taking over oil assets in war-torn Libya.
The terror group has largely taken control of the Libyan city of Sirte and its hundreds of miles of coastline, and has ransacked two key oil terminals in an attempt to wrest control from fragile Libyan officials, ISIS is banking on taking over these oil facilities, and is now reportedly recruiting its own oil and gas engineers.
Libyan crude should be an easier target than Iraqi oil, which has remained largely out of ISIS reach. If ISIS succeeds, it will have more revenues and more power.
Reeling from warring parallel ”governments” in a seething civil war, Libya is in no position to stop ISIS from filling the void.
Libyan oil officials say ISIS has ravaged oilfields south of Sirte, clashing with guards at key oil terminals, shelling storage facilities, and setting oil tanks on fire. All that’s left to do now is take over this part of the business in earnest.
Last week, ISIS targeted two of Libya’s largest export terminals—Es Sider and Ras Lanuf, which handle 80 percent of Libya’s oil reserves. Combined, they have the capacity to ship 500,000 barrels today, barring civil war and terrorist hindrances. For the past year, these two export terminals have been closed down, but ISIS has plans to reopen them—eventually.
After several days of clashes with ISIS and the death of at least 18 guards, Libya’s National Oil Corporation has regained shaky control over the terminals and scrambled to empty the storage tanks at Ras Lanuf as a precaution. Meanwhile, fires have been put out at both terminals.
So how are ISIS recruitment efforts coming along? So far, recruitment efforts are just in the planning stage, but if ISIS does manage to take firm control of these facilities, it may find a willing applicant pool from Libya’s plentiful group of desperate oil workers who felt the weight of unemployment for quite some time.
Can ISIS effectively take control of Libyan oil? To some extent, yes. The terrorist group already controls nearly 300 kilometers of Libya’s coastline west and east of the city of Sirte, which serves as its base in the country.
ISIS is also estimated by some to have around 3,000 fighters based in Sirte.
Given the ease with which ISIS apparently took control in Sirte and attacked the nearby oil facilities, there is a clear threat to two other key terminals, Brega and Zueitina, as well as two vulnerable producing oilfields that may be at risk, Amal and Nafoora.
If ISIS succeeds, it will generate significant revenues from selling Libyan oil domestically.
Libya has been in grave danger since the fall of Ghaddafi. Today, Libya is only generating half the oil revenues it was prior to 2011.
The chaos that has controlled the country since then has now metamorphosed into a civil war between two opposing governments–the internationally-recognized Council of Deputies based in Tobruk and the General National Congress (GNC) based in Tripoli. A peaceful power-sharing agreement is nowhere in sight as neither can agree on how to spit the oil revenues.
The Islamic State’s play for Libyan oil could lead the warring governments to speed up a power-sharing agreement to end the civil war and unite them in the face of an even greater threat. Or, they could lose all to ISIS, which would allow the terrorist group to seize control of an OPEC country. There is also a mid-way scenario that gives ISIS control of the oil facilities around Sirte and a major interim boost to its operational budget.
By Julianne Geiger of Oilprice.com
8 Comments on "Can ISIS Actually Gain Power Over Libya’s Oil?"
joe on Wed, 13th Jan 2016 3:33 am
Also isis would surround Egypt. Hmm, I detect a pattern emerging. Surround Egypt, topple it, close the Suez Canal. Turkey is beginning to realise it’s let a cuckoo in its nest. The Turkish military have been silent, which means they now support islamisation of their country, to become the next Pakistan. The feckless EU rather than showing alarm seems determined to appease Wahabbi islamist moves because they don’t have an answer, or that the answer will upset the majority pinko-liberals and destabilise their precious ‘cum by ah’ world view where all men love and value each other and armies should all be disbanded because ‘it’s like, war, you know, war is the problem man’…
theedrich on Wed, 13th Jan 2016 5:01 am
America is in stalemate. Its corrupt, utopianism-mouthing elites have paralyzed it. It is unable to win wars against barbarians in tennis shoes, whether in Vietnam, Afghanistan or Syria/Iraq. Its European vassals are unwilling and unable to do the expected, seriously heavy lifting for it. The pseudo-POTUS is obsessed only with promoting White guilt among the Christian cretins and their agnostic fellow travelers. The true state of the economy is obscured by a tissue of lies, diversions and misinformation, and the complicit populace is being drowned in drugs foreign and domestic.
All of the outsiders know this. That is why the Mexican elites are exporting their trash here. That is why not just North Korea, but Pakistan can clandestinely sell nuclear technology to other states (and perhaps eventually to ISIL). It is also why Europe is dying and the denizens of failed states everywhere are turning its nations into replicas of their places of origin.
In the last analysis, there is only one reason why the West is dying. Because America wants it to die.
dissident on Wed, 13th Jan 2016 7:52 am
If NATO does nothing about ISIS/Daesh shipping oil out of Turkey, then why would it do something about it if Daesh ships oil out of Libya?
Davy on Wed, 13th Jan 2016 8:06 am
ISIS will take control of the oil through instability but not with much possession. This instability will prevent oil being produced like it could be. That is control but without productive results. ISIS are a spoiler movement. They are not going to be much of a threat in Libya with 3000 fighter like they are in Iraq and Syria. In Iraq they have Mosul and a safe haven of sorts in Turkey. The same mix is not in Libya. I don’t see the same gains or potential gains. I do see worse civil and economic setbacks lowering further the prospects of increased supply from Libya.
JuanP on Wed, 13th Jan 2016 8:40 am
I hope that all Lybian oil infrastructure gets completely destroyed and obliterated. It would serve the Europeans well for having supported the USA in the destruction of what was the most developed African country with the highest standards of living in the continent. It would also be best for the Lybian population in the short, medium, and long term.
The way things are going the Europeans are running out of options to Russian oil and gas. I look forward to the day when Russia no longer sells oil and gas to Europe. Russia should do everything within its power to destroy the American, global, and European economies, in that order. Every day that passes that day gets closer. Payback is a bitch.
JuanP on Wed, 13th Jan 2016 8:44 am
Theedouche, Do you hold any non racist thoughts in your sick racist mind? Can you? I wonder what they did to you as a kid for you to end up so terribly flawed. Or does this disease run in your family?
Whitefang on Wed, 13th Jan 2016 8:57 am
Aha, ISIS division of NATO has been shipped or flown into Lybia, as expected.
Harder for the East to blow them into kingdom come than the IS remnants in Syria.
theedrich on Wed, 13th Jan 2016 6:20 pm
I see the STD-mouthed Uruguayan Pee is still on his anti-White rant. He probably isn’t getting enough welfare from the Big Nig, and expects the gringo to cough up some more for him and his chain-immigrating kin.