Posted on 08/24/2011 11:42:40 AM PDT by bananaman22
Muammar Gadhaffi’s 42 year-old regime is in its death rattle – maybe today, maybe tomorrow, his administration that has ruled Libya with a quixotic and brutal hand is about to pass, in Trotsky’s piquant phrase, “into the dustbin of history,” prompting the question “what next?”
The glittering prize is Libya’s 1.6 million barrels per day output of high quality crude, which accounted for about 2 percent of global oil output drawn from Africa's largest oil reserves, whose exports have been stymied since the NATO-led campaign began six months ago. Projecting into the future, analysts believe that has reserves to sustain its previous level of production for 80 years.
Who will eventually control this asset, with oil prices currently at roughly $84 a barrel, generating an income of more than $12.6 million per day?
Italy’s ENI?
France’s Total?
Britain’s BP?
U.S. companies?
Or, will China add Libyan future production to its string of acquisitions, as it is already China’s eleventh largest source of imports?
The crystal ball is murky indeed, but when the uprising against Gadhaffi began six months ago, according to the Chinese media, about 36,000 Chinese were in Libya working on 50 projects.
Cautiously accepting the new reality, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Ma Zhaoxu said in a statement posted Monday on the ministry's website, "The Chinese side respects the choice of the Libyan people. The Chinese side is willing to work with the international community to play a positive role in the reconstruction process of Libya in the future."
The key word here is “reconstruction,” a noun conspicuously absent from any statements by the NATO coalition members.
When the uprising against Gadhaffi began 75 Chinese companies had already invested billions of dollars in Libya in infrastructure projects, including oil, railway and telecoms projects. After the insurrection erupted in February China began a substantial land, sea and air evacuation operation of its nationals. Full article at: Libya’s Post Gadhaffi Future - Who gets the Oil?
I’d say nobody will be getting it for quite some time. The various factions will fall to fighting over it first.
We’ll get it...right after we get paid back for Iraq.
Al Qaeda...
The Libyans, I imagine.
AlQaeda, MB the Barack Obama benevolent society (who used American resources to make it possible) and Iran/
I think the bulk of the funds will go as general revenue into the new MB caliphate for other MB operations.
The Chinese were working hard to develop Iraqi oil fields too...back before we invaded.
The oil will keep flowing. I think its flowing even now.
The real question is who will get the revenue? Hezbollah? Al Qaeda? The Muslim Brotherhood?
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