Fears over Libyan oil tank disaster

[PeacePlan]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kD8rxhTuOds

[Zippyjuan]

Their energy industry is their basically only source of income- he would have to be pretty desparate to destroy them. But never underestimate a desparate man.

[Zippyjuan]

Looks like they are willing to hurt their own selves in the interest of preserving power (not that this is surprising)
http://my.earthlink.net/article/top?guid=20110309/bffa412f-f519-4cb3-9f62-fc906453bad2

Oil installations ablaze in Libya as battles rage

RAS LANOUF, Libya (AP) — A giant yellow fireball shot into the sky, trailed by thick plumes of black smoke Wednesday after fighting between rebels and forces loyal to Moammar Gadhafi set two oil installations ablaze and inflicted yet more damage on Libya's crippled energy industry.

In the west, Gadhafi claimed victory in recapturing Zawiya, the city closest to the capital that had fallen into opposition hands. The claim could not immediately be verified; phone lines there have not been working during a deadly, six-day siege.

The government twice promised to escort foreign journalists to Zawiya on Wednesday, only to cancel the visit at the last minute. But state TV showed a crowd of hundreds, purportedly in Zawiya's main square, shouting "The people want Colonel Gadhafi!"

The fall of Zawiya to anti-Gadhafi residents early on in the uprising that began Feb. 15 illustrated the initial, blazing progress of the opposition. But Gadhafi has seized the momentum, battering the rebels with airstrikes and artillery fire and repulsing their westward march toward the capital, Tripoli.



In eastern Libya, an Associated Press reporter at Ras Lanouf near the front line of fighting saw an explosion from the area of the Sidr oil facility, 360 miles (580 kilometers) east of Tripoli.

Three columns of thick smoke rose from the area, apparently from burning oil.

Mustafa Gheriani, an opposition spokesman, said the government artillery hit a pipeline supplying Sidr from oil fields in the desert. An oil storage depot also was hit, apparently by an airstrike, he said.

Gheriani accused Gadhafi forces of intentionally targeting oil facilities as a warning to Europe that the chaos in Libya will hurt oil supplies.

"Gadhafi thinks he can put pressure on Europe, but I think this is just going to work against him," Gheriani told the AP.



The violence in Libya has taken a toll on the country's oil production. For the past week, government forces and rebels have been battling around several key oil ports east — Brega, Ras Lanouf and Sidr. At their peak, those three export terminals handled about 715,000 barrels of crude per day, or roughly 45 percent of the country's exports, according to figures published in industry publication Africa Energy. A fourth eastern port, Marsa al-Harigah, handled another 220,000 barrels per day.

In total, those four ports would then account for almost 60 percent of the country's crude exports.

"We were already seeing Libya as pretty much being closed," said Samuel Cizsuk, Mideast oil analyst with IHS Global Insight in London. "It was only a question of time before the escalating violence would damage oil facilities."

"Libya has been discounted from the global markets," he said.