Analysis: Revolt in Libya likely to scar its oil sector
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/02/23/us-oil-libya-disruption-idUSTRE71M16M20110223
- An estimated 300,000 to 400,000 barrels per day (bpd) of Libya's 1.6 million bpd of production has been halted, as companies evacuate staff and suspend operations, according to the latest Reuters calculations.
- Much of the country's oil industry is run by foreign firms including Eni and Repsol, while Libya's National Oil Corporation (NOC) has traditionally been tightly controlled by Gaddafi.
- Libyan strongman Muammar Gaddafi defiantly pledged on Tuesday to stay in power at any cost, threatening to have protesters hunted down and killed "house by house."
- With rival factions already laying claim to an oil-rich swath of eastern Libya, separated by hundreds of miles of desert from capital Tripoli in the west, the country could even face civil war, analysts warned.
YEARS TO BOUNCE BACK
In OPEC countries where oil infrastructure is the ultimate key to power and purse strings, war and other major political crises have typically resulted in supply disruptions that take years or decades to bounce back from.
Iran's 1979 revolution cut the country's output by more than half, and production never recovered fully.
Iraq's 1990 invasion of Kuwait ultimately slashed output in both countries for years, and ravaged Kuwaiti oil wells.
Venezuela's massive oil industry strike of 2002 crippled production, which has never returned to pre-strike levels.
