Gone are the days when miners paid to buy their oil, but the price of a barrel of North Sea Brent below $ 42 is a lubricant for the world economy that can make it work at least a little during a pandemic. Around 4:00 PM, a barrel of Brent sold for $ 41.73, and US light oil WTI cost $ 39.45 at the same time.
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However, it must be added that last week black gold rose by nine percent, which is the most in the case of Brent since June.
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Now, however, the factors that are pushing prices down are coming into play. First of all, the Libyan state oil company NOC is resuming its production on the largest Libyan oil field, Ash-Sharar. The hostile parties of the Libyan civil war have started peace talks, which has opened a window for exports.
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Libya’s oil production came to a complete halt in January as Field Marshal Khalifa Haftar blocked raw material exports. Last month, however, Haftar announced the end of the blockade.
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There has been chaos in Libya since 2011, when the then dictator Muammar Gaddafi was overthrown with the help of the West. In addition to many armed groups, two cabinets are seeking government there: the internationally recognized government in Tripoli in the west competes with the cabinet in the east of the country, which is supported by Haftar’s East Libyan Army (LNA).
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The NOC company said that it had concluded an agreement with Haftar’s military forces to end “all obstructions” in the Ash-Sharar oil field. That produced about 300,000 barrels of oil a day before the blockade, Reuters reported.
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In addition to the armistice in the south, miners in the Norwegian North Sea sector also signed a “peace treaty”. The companies agreed with the trade unions, ending a ten-day strike that could result in a 25 percent reduction in production next week.
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The southern United States was threatened last week by Hurricane Delta. It has caused the largest blow to US energy production in 15 years, reducing oil production in the Gulf of Mexico by 92 percent. But at the weekend he weakened to a tropical storm.
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