Libya Alhurra Updates

Libya Alhurra livestream, April 23

Live report from Libya Alhurra, April 23, discussing current news from Libya:

Benghazi:

• Thousands of people have attended the friday prayer, speech about the problems of weapons in Benghazi, asking people to give them over or stop selling them.
• Yesterday, a small service was held for Tim Hetherington and Chris Hondros, shortly before midnight. A second ceremony occured this morning, as well as for the Ukrainian doctor who died in Misrata. 
• John McCain stressed the importance of recognizing the National Transitory Council as sole legitimate government of Libya, pushing for the release of frozen assets and arming the freedom fighters.

Tobruk:

• 8 people were killed South of Tobruk, attacked by a fleet of 9 companies, at a booster station owned by the Arabian Gulf Oil Company (Agoco), at approximately 11am on April 22.
• A new team of guards have been sent to this station to secure it.

ICRC sets up shop in Libya.

The International Committee of the Red Cross was given authorization to establish a permanent office in Tripoli April 11. Yesterday a team of four staff specializing in health matters, detention-related activities and logistics arrived there.

“Now that our specialists have arrived, we will go back to Misrata and Zawiyah but we will also start working in other areas,” said Jean-Michel Monod, who heads the ICRC team in Tripoli. “We need to see and talk to those affected and respond directly to their needs. Having the support of all the parties will certainly help us to achieve this aim.”

Some key points from today’s ICRC Operations Update:

• Misrata: The ICRC ship that docked there on 8 April delivered enough medical supplies to treat 300 patients with weapon-related injuries. Together with Libyan Red Crescent personnel, ICRC staff toured the streets in Misrata to assess the need for humanitarian aid.
• ICRC staff also collected more than 180 “safe and well” messages from foreign nationals in Misrata and contacted their families abroad, with the help of Libyan Red Crescent volunteers, to give them news of their loved ones.
• Thousands of people have been displaced to the eastern towns of Tobruk, Daran, Al Beyda and Al Marj. On 14 April, the ICRC started distributing food and other items to 18,000 people in those towns in cooperation with the Libyan Red Crescent, the municipal councils and the Committee for Humanitarian Aid and Relief.
• The ICRC has provided the General Electricity Company of Libya and the Benghazi Water and Sewage Authority with basic supplies needed to repair the low-tension electricity network and the water network so that thousands of people will continue to have water and electricity.
• An assessment of weapon-contaminated areas in Benghazi, Baida and Ajdabiya has already been completed. Together with the Libyan Red Crescent, the ICRC is now starting an awareness-raising campaign to warn of the danger of unexploded ordnance. The ICRC also intends to send a specialized team to provide technical support for clearing the worst-affected areas.
• Efforts continue to assist refugees displaced on the borders of Tunisia and Egypt.

Uncertainty over Eastern Libya oil exports

Since the Mislah and Sarir oil fields attacks last week by Gaddafi forces, here are the latest developments about oil production and exports from Eastern Libya.

Libyan Oil Exports Depend on Rebels Securing Sarir

Bloomberg - Maher Chmaytelli - Apr 12, 2011 5:31 PM GMT+0200

Attacks last week by Qaddafi’s troops forced production from Sarir and Messla to a halt, Agoco’s head of communication, Abdeljalil Mayouf, said in an interview today in the company’s headquarters in Benghazi, the main city under control of the National Transitional Council that is leading the rebellion.

Messla suffered “heavy damage” to pumps, storage tanks and electricity equipment, while production from Sarir stopped because the area remains vulnerable to attacks, he said.

“Messla will take months to repair; Sarir can return to production once the area is secured,” he said.

While Sarir has a capacity to produce 200,000 barrels a day, Agoco was operating it at half this rate since the fighting started in February as the company had to withdraw staff for security reasons, Mayouf said. Messla was running at one-third of its 100,000 barrel-a-day capacity, he said.

Libya rebels cut oil flow to Tobruk

Platts, Sherif Elhelwa, Apr 11, 2011 13:47 GMT

Libya’s rebel-led National Transitional Council has reduced the flow of crude oil from fields under its control to storage tanks in the port of Tobruk by 75% with no word as to when they will be able to sell a second cargo of crude oil, a source at the 20,000 b/d Tobruk refinery said Monday.

The source did not say how much crude oil was still being held in storage at the Mediterranean oil terminal of Marsa El Hariga near Tobruk. The terminal has 4 million barrels of oil storage capacity of which 3 million barrels is usable.

Libyan rebels operating a transitional government out of the eastern city of Benghazi sold their first crude oil cargo out of Marsa El Hariga on April 6 when the Equator, a Suezmax tanker chartered by Vitol, loaded a cargo of Sarir/Mesla blend crude oil. The tanker loaded 130,000 mt of crude.

The National Transitional Council said it has concluded a deal with Qatar to market crude oil on its behalf to generate revenue to meet humanitarian needs of Libyans in areas under rebel control.

It was the first such oil sale by the rebels since the start of the insurrection against Libyan leader Moammar Qadhafi on February 17. The state-owned National Oil Company based in Tripoli has threatened legal action against any company that deals with the rebels.

There has been no word as to when the rebels expect to sell a second cargo with officials wary of revealing their plans for fear that Qadhafi loyalists will attack oil fields operated by former NOC subsidiaries that have defected to the rebel side.