Libya oil production grinding to a halt
Steve Hargreaves
CNNMoney.com Senior Writer
NEW YORK (CNNMoney) - Oil production in Libya is shutting down as companies operating there begin to close facilities due to the ongoing violence.
Oil prices surged Wednesday, passing $100 a barrel, after a report in the Financial Times said half of Libya's production has been suspended. The report cited unnamed industry executives.
Italian oil giant Eni, the largest foreign oil company in Libya, and Spain's Repsol said they had suspended some of their production operations in the North African country.
An Eni spokesman declined to specify how much of its production has been shut in, saying that disclosing that information could jeopardize the remaining output.
"Certain oil and gas activities in the country have been temporarily suspended in a precautionary way," said the statement, released Tuesday. "Security measures on those facilities have been undertaken."
Eni (E) produces about 250,000 barrels a day from Libya, which has a total oil output of 1.6 million barrels per day. Worldwide oil consumption is pegged at 87.5 million barrels per day.
|
|
Filed under: 360° Radar • 360º Follow |
About this Show:
Anderson Cooper goes beyond the headlines to tell stories from many points of view, so you can make up your own mind about the news. Tune in weeknights at 8 and 10 ET on CNN.
Questions or comments? Send an email
Want to know more? Go behind the scenes with AC361°
Subscribe to the podcast
On Twitter
Search the AC360 blog
Time is of essence, because Gadhafi is slaughtering thousands of innocent libyans every single day... We must coordinate with possibly Great Britain to start air strikes as soon as possible against Gadhafi... These humanitarian air strikes will save up to 100,000 lives on the ground...
I would like to know why this is such a big deal. As far as I know, OPEC dictates the amount of oil produced, so as to put a stanglehold on the market and squeeze as much money out of us, as they possibly can. I'm actually pretty sure that if it was'nt for OPEC limiting supply, Oil could be at $30 a barrel. But that does'nt sit well for people that need to become tzars overnight. I mean am I wrong?
This situation in Libya just proved that the U.S. never invaded Iraq to steal Iraq's oil. If we had, we wouldn't be feeling the price of gas going up due to the situation in Libya. Sooner or later the truth had to surface about Iraq and those that were convinced otherwise will have to eat their words now or make up a whole lot of excuses.