RUSSIA is eyeong up its chance to take control of Libya’s oil production facilities in a bid to hold Europe to ransom, experts warned last night.
It follows the decision by Putin proxy General Khalifa Haftar, who controls eastern and southern Libya, to shut down the country’s largest oil field.
El Sharara is capable of pumping 300,00 barrels of oil a day, 80 per cent of which goes to Europe through its operators – Spain’s Repsol, France’s TotalEnergies, Austria’s OMV and Norway’s state-controlled Equinor.
It became more crucial to Europe’s energy needs following the decision to boycott Russian oil after its invasion of Ukraine.
The shutdown happened after Haftar’s son was detained as he tried to visit Europe for the finals of the Libyan premier league.
Italian authorities in Naples advised Saddam, Saddam, named after the former Iraqi dictator and a key military figure in his father’s self-styled Libyan National Army (LNA), not to try to enter the country because he had been placed on an arrest list by Spain over attempts to secure lethal drones,
A shutdown was ordered in furious retribution by General Haftar as a way to pressure Madrid to withdraw the warrant.
But the biggest winner is Vladimir Putin, who now has an opportunity to replace European oil concerns with Russia’s state-owned energy giant, Gazprom.
The Russian leader controls more than 3,000 mercenary troops in Libya, and uses the country as a hub from which he exterts influence over several African nations, offerting dictators armed support in return for access to minerals.
Russia has made more than £2.5bn in blood gold since 2022, and a £1bn diamond mine in the Central African Republic nets more than £300m a year.
Europe gets 40 percent of gas and 30 percent of oil from Russia, with plans for this to increase if a peace plan can be found between Haftar in Benghazi and PM Abdul al-Dbeibeh in Tripoli.
Libya has the ninth largest known oil reserves in the world and the biggest oil reserves in Africa.
“The shut down of El Sharara by his proxy Khalifa Haftar plays straight into Vladimir Putin’s hands,” said Dr. Alia Brahimi, a nonresident senior fellow within the Atlantic Council’s Middle East Programme.
“Russia’s strategy is to eventually drive European players out, and ideally bring Gazprom in.
“And weaponizing energy and minerals is a ploy he will want to replicate in Mali, CAR and all over Africa where Russia has interests.
“The West should be concerned.“
