Battle for Oil Port: East Libya Forces In Full Control At Ras Lanuf

[jpZelabal + 63]

East Libyan forces took full control of Ras Lanuf oil terminal and the surrounding area on Thursday as they rapidly advanced against rivals who seized the port a week ago, a spokesman said.“ Our armed forces fully control the Ras Lanuf district and the enemy suffered large losses in lives and equipment,” Libyan National Army (LNA) spokesman Ahmed al-Mismari said.

[franco + 96]

Many of West countries don’t want the Libyan war to end .. How many times this key oil area has been captured and recaptured?  

[Pavel + 384]

The violence at the Ras Lanuf and Al-Sidra terminals has caused "catastrophic damage", according to the National Oil Company. The clashes had cause oil output to drop by 450,000 barrels -- nearly half the national production. And, it's a obviously that  peace conferences about Libya are totally different things in comparison with facts on the ground. 

[damirUSBiH + 327]

So, production to resume shortly. Than, new week - new attack....Welcome to Libya 

[Missy + 43]

6 minutes ago, damirUSBiH said:

So, production to resume shortly. Than, new week - new attack....Welcome to Libya 

I'm not really sure I understand the full behind-the-scenes stuff going on here. They seemed to have pulled it together there for a while, and now all of a sudden it seems to have fallen back into chaos again. Not only will Libya's faltering production effect the current OPEC meeting to discuss lifting production, it will only add to Venezuela's and perhaps Iran's shortfalls. 

Is anyone holding out hope that things will stabilize permanently in Libya @damirUSBiH, and what is missing from enabling them to do that? 

[Jan van Eck + 7,558]

6 minutes ago, Missy said:

Is anyone holding out hope that things will stabilize permanently in Libya @damirUSBiH, and what is missing from enabling them to do that? 

What is missing is the monopoly control of force. 

The modern State has that monopoly of the use of force both by having a solid national police infrastructure and Army to back it up, as well as control over the guns.  Libya has no control over the guns and the distribution is widespread.  Further, those guns are much more than your typical deer-hunting rifle; they are automatic rifles that can and do send off an entire magazine at a go.  Plus there are guys out there running around with those portable shoulder launchers to send off little bazooka rockets, called generally "Rocket propelled grenades,"  or RPGs, and there is that nephew of the Rat Patrol 50-cal machine gun mounted on a Jeep, the "Technical," a heavy machine gun bolted onto a stand bolted to the floor bed of a Toyota pick-up truck.  Put those guys together, add in a hefty dose of pseudo-religious lunacy, season with old tribal hatreds, and you have - Libya. Now, how do you propose to go sort that out?

Ultimately, you will have two dominant factions that will go at it until one faction is all dead.  When the opponents are dead, there is no longer going to be fighting and the remaining side calls the shots and makes the Rules. So: how do you hold peace talks in an environment where the mentality is to go kill every single last one of the opponents? 

[damirUSBiH + 327]

Yes, we can call it self-destruct. Everyone against everybody, and everyone has weapons. In particular. 13 Oil storage tanks at Ras Lanuf: 7 destroyed in previous battles by various militias attacking oil terminals. 2 destroyed by oil pirate Jadran’s current attack. And,  tank 6 is on fire after latest skirmishes between LNA & Jadran’s militias.
 

[pinto + 293]

This aerial photo about a damage done over course of Oil Crescent battles is the best picture what we have 7 yrs after Gaddafi regime.....Sad.

[Refman + 207]

6 hours ago, jpZelabal said:

East Libyan forces took full control of Ras Lanuf oil terminal and the surrounding area on Thursday as they rapidly advanced against rivals who seized the port a week ago, a spokesman said.“ Our armed forces fully control the Ras Lanuf district and the enemy suffered large losses in lives and equipment,” Libyan National Army (LNA) spokesman Ahmed al-Mismari said.

So yeah they have complete control of what's left, which isn't much

[Royalblood + 14]

anyone noticing how the Qatar is trying to turn the tables here in the media war by planting stories (revenge) that General Haftar is being weaponized by UAE and Egypt?

[jose chalhoub + 388]

great discussion going on here folks. Now does anyone have any hopes here for any presidential elections in Libya sometime soon this year? I seriously doubt it. And if there ever were, could we see the return of the Gaddafis through Saif Al Islam Gaddafi, who i believe is running as candidate. Also, its important to monitor the role of Russia in Libya since it could become the Kremlin's next Syria case, since Libya was invaded against Russia veto at the UN and now that it has a chance and possibly influence over Haftar, it might think it has a revenge coming on, and also since it represents another flow of energy to Europe, which in other words, represents more competition to Russia's influence in Europe in terms of natural gas and oil exports. 

[Kate Turlington + 44]

No one is really paying any attention to elections, which I think are supposed to be held in December (inshallah), but will ultimately mean very little. The other problem is that this is yet another proxy war venue for the Saudi-UAE-Egypt axis versus the Qataris, as @Royalblood pointed out. But with regard to the Libyan parties on this field, it is a repeat of the same forces that we saw about three years ago. The attackers in this case were led by Ibrahim Jadran, who was the head of the Petroleum Facilities Guard (PFG). That's the same PFG that had hijacked LIbya's oil exports for about two years, taking most of it offline. Haftar (LNA) went on the offensive and wrestled control of the facilities from the PFG, kicking Jadran out and sending him crying off to find himself another militia (which he's done now, no doubt with some help from Islamic groups--which the Saudis will blame on Qatar). So Jadran is back ... but Haftar is stronger. That doesn't mean, though, that this isn't going to keep happening. Haftar's forces can overcome in an attack, but they do not come close to being able to control more than that right now. 

[wellsliq@gmail.com + 1]

The oil shell game to manipulate prices just goes on and on.

How comes these geniuses at Oil Price said last week that oil prices were going down when there was horrible news about Libya and Venezuela.  These guys are clueless about what they are writing.  Genius.

[Tom Kirkman + 8,860]

10 hours ago, wellsliq@gmail.com said:

The oil shell game to manipulate prices just goes on and on.

How comes these geniuses at Oil Price said last week that oil prices were going down when there was horrible news about Libya and Venezuela.  These guys are clueless about what they are writing.  Genius.

Perhaps you would like to offer your own insight and commentary, then.