Libya has a lot of sweet
oil, it is some of the highest grade oil in the world, it is called
Bonnie Light. Huge wells, lots of production capability however
the paraffin content is 18 to 19%. This is the oil that all the
EU refineries need, low sulfur, little debris only the paraffin.
Libya was producing 3.8 million barrels a day plus the equivalent of
that in natural gas. The sanctions on Libya dropped that production
to just over one million barrels a day. That had been steadily increasing
since the treaties between the US and Libya were affected in 2004.
To prove that the USA had absolutely no concern for the country of Libya
there was a monster natural gas well that was damaged during the NATO
bombing. It spewed more than 2 million cubic feet of gas a day
into one of the major production areas of Libya. It was a Zuetina
well, it was a miracle that this well did not ignite and or explode.
It spewed this gas for months. No oil field service company would enter
the area because of the fighting and constant danger of an uncontrollable
explosion.
We were known to be “go to” people for goods and services for the Oil
and Gas Industry in Libya. The new NOC Chairman Omran I. Boukraa,
requested that we meet with his executive committee to get a qualified
service company to cap this well. Not only to prevent damage to
the field but for the future safety of anyone that would go into that
area. We immediately contacted Boots and Coots which is the renamed
famous “Red Adair” company that fought oil well fires and blow outs.
Boots and Coots is a Houston based company that has since been purchased
by Halliburton. We called their emergency response team and fully
expected them to act within hours as that is their normal operating
procedure.
We sent them all the data on the field, the well, the formation, etc.
We fully expected them to take this problem in hand and mount a formible
operation to stop the well, or plug the well and thereby prevent a potential
catastrophic explosion. Please understand any spark, any friction,
any gunfire, anything could cause this thing to explode and since it
had been spewing gas for months the explosion would have made an atomic
bomb look slight.. During the next 48 hours we were promised updates,
arrival times, mobilization requirements, etc. But we got nothing,
we contacted them again and was told that the US Secreatry of States
office had instructed them to do nothing for this well.
Of course, we questioned this, demanded a legitimate reason because
this was incredulous, this was their business they are the best in the
world, how could they not act? He said it was a political decision!
We informed the Chairman Boukraa. We then opened dialogue with
the Russian Ambassador and he promised to look into the problem but
in the end the only company we could get to agree to act was an independent
Chinese oil field service company. We were moving forward to place
them into position of final negotiations with the NOC when Tripoli was
invaded.
Every responsible oil and gas producer in the world would be shocked
and saddened over the useless loss of such a huge quantity of natural
resources. That amount of natural gas was easily fuel a large
city through a very cold winter. The potential damage to the formation
is real and catastrophic. This is a prime example of proof that
the invaders of Libya had no regard for the future productivity of the
Libyan oil and gas resources.
During the fighting, teams of highly trained pundits, went to oil and
gas pipeline locations in remote areas of Libya and in many cases would
close a valve and pour tons of cement over the valve. This meant
that the valve could never be used again. Due to the high paraffin
content in the oil, the pipeline would be rendered useless forever because
the paraffin would leach out of the oil and solidify in all the valves
and bins and render the pipeline useless.
The oil production is as low as 100 barrels a day now. Every oil
well must be recompleted, at one time all the oil wells were stopped
from NATO bombings. You cannot just stop and oil well, there are
many things that must be engineered if an oil well is to be put back
on line easily NONE of this was done. NATO controlled all
the ingress and egress into Libya. The Mediterranean was completely
shut off to Libya. You don’t fly oil, it is transported in ships.
So, there was never any legitimate reason to damage the oil production
in Libya. This is a painful demonstration of the real intent of
the USA, France and the UK that was destroy Libya to remove the threat
to Africom and to permanently eliminate the threat to the Zionist bankers
which was the African Bank and Gold backed Dinar, which was one of
Ghadafi’s brilliant solutions for Africa.
According to the Society of Petroleum Engineers the oil shipping out
of Libya in January and February 2012 was at or about 100 barrels a
day. There were many months were there was no oil shipped out
of Libya. Further, for any substantial amounts of oil to again be produced,
every well must be re completed. The pipelines that cannot be
reopened must be rebuilt. The oil in Libya is not produced at
the Mediterranean it is produced deep in the desert and must be transported
above ground to ports at the Mediterranean. There are large storage
facilities at the Mediterranean but those were also damaged and blown
up. Power plants were blown up , so even the electricity to operate
the pumping motors and pumping stations now must be made operative through
temporary generating equipment. The refined fuel to operate these
facilities is not available because the refineries were damaged.
So there is no simple solution, a major redo of all production facilities
must be undertaken in order to get any commercial amounts of gas and
oil produced. Add to that, the fact that the Green resistance
which have always been pro Libya and against the Imperialists will never
allow the insitu assets of Libya to be stolen without a fight.
The US Marines and other Military forces in Libya have been tasked to
protect the Oil and Gas producers, there are 12 to 15,000 US soldiers
in Libya, that no one has ever seen because they are protecting pipeline
crews and drilling companies etc. None of this oil and gas production
will benefit the US so these costs and expenses being paid for by the
US tax payers are benefiting the UK and French oil companies.
We don’t see an equitable resolution to any of these problems in the
near future. The anarchy which always follows a revolution is
the norm in Libya. And since NATO continues to bomb Libya there continues
to be no concern for the citizens of Libya. The only way the NTC
is maintaining any kind of presence in Libya is because of the incessant
bombing of the Libyan people.
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