Libyan rebel oil production down for 4 more weeks

Associated Press

BENGHAZI, Libya

Libyan rebels fighting Moammar Gadhafi won’t be able to produce more crude oil for at least four more weeks and are taking steps to conserve precious supplies of fuel and money, the top oil official in the breakaway east said Sunday.

The rebels need to repair equipment to pump oil from two key fields in the rebel-controlled east, Messla and Sarir, that were damaged in fighting, said Wahid Bughaigis, who serves as oil minister for the rebels.

OPEC member Libya sits atop Africa’s largest proven oil reserves. But Libyan exports largely have disappeared from the international market since the uprising began, helping drive oil prices to their highest levels in more than two years.

Earlier this month, the Gulf state of Qatar helped rebels complete the sale of 1 million barrels of crude that netted roughly $129 million for the anti-Gadhafi forces.

But Bughaigis said he believed the rebels have spent much of that money on things such as imported gasoline.

“To put things in perspective, one cargo of gasoline of 25,000 metric tons costs us $75 million, so you don’t go far with $129 million,” he said.

To conserve fuel, the rebels have cut electricity production in Benghazi by 25 percent, said Bughaigis. The main plant providing power to the city used to be run with natural gas supplied from the oil facilities in Brega, now under government control.