When NATO decided to impose regime change in Libya, many nations in Europe had visions of a massive influx of oil imports from the Mediterranean coast, with several European companies, most predominantly Italy’s Eni, investing heavily in an oil industry which has only intermittently managed exports amid fighting.
Today, the fighting is picking up again, with the Islamist Benghazi Defense Brigade launching the latest attack against the main oil export terminals at Sidra and Ras Lanuf, capturing the area, and sparking a new round of fighting with Gen. Khalifa Hifter and his self-proclaimed Libyan National Army.
Hifter, a former CIA asset, had only captured the area himself a few months prior, expelling Petrol Guards loyal to the unity government from the area. The Petrol Guards were short-handed because they launched an offensive against the coastal city of Sirte.
US, British and French Ambassadors have urged calm in the area around the export site, citing concerns that the fighting could seriously damage the infrastructure and cut off exports for the long-term, until European companies pony up more money to repair it again.
Do we need more proofs that history is a string of unintended consequences?
Or a comedy. No sooner has General Heftar aken over the oil hubs — and ditched his former masters by seeking Egyptian and Russian assistance to stabilize Eastern Libya — here come Islamists to the rescue! Anybody remembering how conveniently ISIS showed up to catapult from power the renegade duplicate government in Tripoli. The moment that was done, a new and imptoved “government” was imported via ship into Tripoli, and curteous ISIS mostly disappeared. But the asset general figured out how he was just a dispossble pawn, and is not accepting UN “government” — and catalulted oil terminal “security”. Now, corteous islamists came to catapult Hefrar. There are so many islamists for hire, so this is not the last word in Libya saga. EU is broke, US is broke. And to keep Libya functional enough to pump and ship oil may be more expensive then buying the oil at ten times the market price. Oh well, Hillary came, she conquered, and had Ghadafi sodomized and killed. Good girl, hesr her roar. But we the taxed plebes pay and pay and pay and pay and pay. It is as endless as universe.
So much the better, the more fighting keeps oil in the ground. That’s more time for us to recognize as a species that the only way to have a survivable future is to get off fossil fuels entirely, ASAP.