THE SCRAMBLE FOR THE LYBIAN OIL AFTER GADDAFI: ENCLOSURES!

Latest issue of oil and gas industri regarding to Libya scramble by Blog Oil & Gas Issue.

The NATO-led operation to ‘free the people of Libya’  hardly ended when the ‘real freedom’ (freedom to exploit Libya’s oil)  began to be more apparent to the global public.

Libya produces one of the finest crude oils around the globe and therefore in very high demand. Before the rebellion it exported about 1.3 million barrels a day! Just before the end of the war, western nations, especially the NATO countries, have literally expressed desire for the country’s oil. The Italian Foreign Minister, Franco Frattini, said on TV that Eni, Italy’s oil company, “will have a No. 1 role in the future”  in the North African oil rich nation. In addition to Italy, Libyan oil export contributed to at least 15% of Switzerland, Austria and France’s total oil imports.

Already companies like BP and others which had contracts with the previous regime are expressing hopes that the current government will honour the contractual agreement the Gaddafi regime signed with them before his demise.

This is a blatant exposition of their intentions for the war which was realistically far removed from freeing the people of Libya. Their intention was to exploit the Libyan oil.  The previous non-pro-western government made it really difficult for western companies and now that the current regime is almost morally obliged, the west is going to have a field day in their exploitation spree.

Libya was said to be mining less than their average which could have been for environmental considerations by the Gaddafi regime, but this west-dependent regime would have little or no resistance against the west in their bid to plunder the country. This will be done through displacing people from their natural habitats thereby destroying their cultures and other social fabrics, all in a bid to maximise profit. Lands are going to be lost and environmental degradation heightened. Capitalism is all about profit maximisation and accumulation, with little or no consideration for sustainability or livelihoods. Future generation is never the consideration of capitalists.

So the fight was all about enclosing Libyan land and exploiting their oil and other resources!