The Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera said that Haftar, amid the crises the country is going through, is not standing idly by while he is thinking of new plans to besiege Tripoli, counting on distracting the West in the midst of the crises regarding the wars in Ukraine and Gaza, according to it.
The newspaper referred to what was reported by specialized agencies regarding the recent local private company called Arkanu (founded in 2003) shipping quantities of oil extracted from the Sarir and Masla fields abroad, and “it is the third shipment in a row amounting to one million barrels, achieving about 240 million dollars.”
The newspaper asked: How can Arkeno operate while the entire country is cut off from international payments? And how can the Libyan National Oil Company cede this power to a private company that no one knows about?
The newspaper commented that all these developments “cannot happen in Benghazi against Haftar’s wishes.”
The newspaper pointed out that the areas in which Haftar and his son Saddam have influence have concluded alliances with Abu Dhabi, and Russia in particular, which enabled Vladimir Putin to make eastern Libya a launching pad for his operations in Africa, confirming the presence of nearly two thousand fighters from the Wagner militia inside the country.
The newspaper said that today, thanks to Haftar, Putin can rely on a Russian military base a few hundred kilometers from the Italian maritime border.
A few days ago, the Africa Energy website quoted reliable sources as saying that the Arkeno Oil Company, which was established last year in Benghazi, had exported 5 shipments of oil during the past period despite the announced oil shutdowns.
The website estimated that the total exported quantity amounted to about 5 million barrels of oil, and that all of it was exported to China.
The website also indicated that the company intends to send two more shipments in the coming weeks.
The website noted that it had not received a response from the company or the National Oil Corporation to comment on these accusations.
The website considered that Haftar can obtain a lot of money through this company, which may push him to continue closing the oil.
In the same context, a recent report by the Oil Price website said that “Haftar’s clan is busy making oil money through the private Arkan Oil company, which is allowed to freely bypass the blockade and export oil to international markets.”
The Oil Price report indicated that Arkeno is scheduled to export one million barrels of crude oil to Italy, via the Turkish trading company, noting that “Ankara, which has traditionally supported the government in Tripoli, has its traders making deals with Haftar to export despite the blockade.”
The published report suggested that “the National Oil Corporation is not in any way controlling at the present time, and that major international companies operating in Libya will pay close attention to who their exports are going to, and observers will also be interested in knowing where this money goes.”
Oil Price expects the conflict in Libya to continue, and that the competition over oil will be one of the most prominent axes of this conflict.
Source: Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera + Africa Energy website
2024-09-26 08:03:23