Libya threatens to bomb North Korean tanker if it ships oil from rebel port
Ulf Laessing and Feras Bosalum
TRIPOLI Reuters
Published Saturday, Mar. 08 2014, 5:04 PM EST
Last updated Saturday, Mar. 08 2014, 11:23 PM EST
Libya threatened on Saturday to bomb a North Korean-flagged tanker if it
tried to ship oil from a rebel-controlled port, in a major escalation of a
standoff over the countrys petroleum wealth.
The rebels, who have seized three major Libyan ports since August to press
their demands for more autonomy, warned Tripoli against staging an attack to
halt the oil sale after the tanker docked at Es Sider terminal, one of the
countrys biggest. The vessel started loading crude late at night, oil
officials said.
The oil dispute is just one facet of the deepening turmoil in the North
African OPEC member, where the government is struggling to control militias
that helped topple Muammar Gaddafi in 2011 but kept their weapons and now
challenge state authority.
A local television station controlled by protesters showed footage of
pro-autonomy rebels holding a lengthy ceremony and slaughtering a camel to
celebrate their first oil shipment. In the distance stood a tanker. The
station said the ceremony took place in Es Sider.
Prime Minister Ali Zeidan appeared on television to warn the tankers crew.
The tanker will be bombed if it doesnt follow orders when leaving (the
port). This will be an environmental disaster, Zeidan said.
They are now trying to load oil, he said, denouncing it as a criminal act.
Authorities have ordered the arrest of the tankers crew.
There was no immediate sign of the countrys armed forces moving toward the
port. Analysts say the military, still in training, would struggle to
overcome rebels battle-hardened from the eight-month uprising against
Gaddafi.
Zeidan acknowledged the army had failed to implement his orders last week to
stop the protesters sending reinforcements from their base in Ajdabiyah,
west of the regional capital Benghazi, to Es Sider.
Nothing was done, Zeidan said, adding that political opponents in
parliament were obstructing his government. He said North Korea had asked
the ships captain to sail away from the port but armed protesters had
prevented that.
Abb-Rabbo Albarassi, the eastern autonomy movements self-declared prime
minister, said Zeidans government had failed to meet its demands to share
oil wealth, to investigate oil corruption and to grant the regional
autonomy.
We tried to reach a deal with the government, but they and parliament ...
were too busy with themselves and didnt even discuss our demands, he said
at the televised ceremony.
If anyone attacks, we will respond to that.
A successful independent oil shipment would be a blow to the government.
Tripoli had said earlier it would destroy tankers trying to buy oil from
Ibrahim Jathran, a former anti-Gaddafi rebel who seized the port and two
others with thousands of his men in August.
Jathran, who was seen attending the televised ceremony, had commanded a
brigade of former rebels paid by the state to protect petroleum facilities.
He defected with his troops, however, to take over the ports.
In January, the Libyan navy fired on a Maltese-flagged tanker that it said
had tried to load oil from the protesters in Es Sider.
The North Korean-flagged Morning Glory, which was previously flagged in
Liberia, had been circling off the Libyan coast for days. It tried to dock
at Es Sider on Tuesday, when port workers still loyal to the central
government told the crew to turn back.
Storage tanks at Es Sider and other seized ports are full, according to oil
sources.
It is extremely unusual for an oil tanker flagged in secretive North Korea
to operate in the Mediterranean, shipping sources said.
A spokesman for state-run National Oil Corp (NOC) said the Morning Glory was
owned by a Saudi company. It had changed ownership in the past few weeks and
previously been called Gulf Glory, according to a shipping source.
The Saudi embassy in Tripoli said in a statement that the kingdoms
government had nothing to do with the tanker, without saying who owned it.
PROTESTS
Western powers worry Libya will slide into deeper instability or even break
apart as the government, paralyzed by political battles in parliament,
struggles to assert control of a vast country awash with arms and militias.
At a Libya conference this week in Rome, Western countries voiced concern
that tensions in Libya could slip out of control in the absence of a
functioning political system, and urged the government and rival factions to
start talking.
U.S. Ambassador to Libya Deborah Jones said in a series of tweets on
Saturday that the only parties authorized to sell Libyas oil are the
National Oil Corp and its subsidiaries and partners.
Any purchase of oil within Libya from anyone other than those entities
amounts to theft from the Libyan people, she said, adding that companies
that engage in illicit trade with separatist groups in Libya risk liability
in multiple jurisdictions.
Libyas government has tried to end a wave of protests at oil ports and
fields across the vast desert state that have slashed oil output, the
countrys lifeline, to 230,000 barrels per day (bpd), from 1.4 million bpd
in July.
Tripoli has held indirect talks with Jathran, who seized the port, but his
demand for a greater share of oil revenues for the east, like the region had
under Gaddafis predecessor King Idris, is sensitive for a government that
worries this might lead to secession.
Jathran has teamed up with another set of protesters blocking oil exports at
the 110,000-bpd Hariga port in Tobruk, also located in the east.
Libyas defense minister held talks this week with protesters blocking the
340,000-bpd El Sharara oilfield in the south but there is no word on whether
it will reopen soon.
The protesters, from a tribal minority, want national identity cards and a
local council, demands the minister has promised to study.
EM
On the 49th Parallel
Thé Mulindwas Communication Group
"With Yoweri Museveni and Dr. Kiiza Besigye Uganda is in anarchy"
Kuungana Mulindwa Mawasiliano Kikundi
"Pamoja na Yoweri Museveni na Dk. Kiiza Besigye Uganda ni katika machafuko"
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