WSJ
Trading screens may have been dominated by headlines about Ukraine in
recent times, but for oil traders there is a longer-running supply-side
issue: Libya.
It’s been three years since the fall of Moammar Ghadafi, who was
swept up by the Arab Spring. Libya, a major producer of coveted sweet
crude, has since been in a state of turmoil, with
violence, division and
political unrest continuing to this day.
The oil industry in the country with Africa’s largest reserves has been
in suspended animation. The effect on companies operating there h
as been brutal.
Now there may be
signs of a breakthrough.
Crude flows have resumed from major oil-producing fields of El Sharara,
El Feel and Wafa and the pipelines linking them to the Zawiya exports
terminal, The Wall Street Journal’s
Benoit Faucon reports.
The fields together produce 500,000 barrels a day, and their
resumption will push total Libyan daily crude output up to 750,000
barrels.
There are two caveats. Although such a large increase is welcome,
this still leaves Libyan producing at half its normal capacity. Also,
this is
far from the first time that talk of normality has emerged from Libya.
MELT
Six rapidly melting glaciers in Antarctica are
destabilizing one of the world’s largest ice sheets and, if unchecked, this could release enough water to raise sea levels world-wide significantly in centuries to come.
Who says? Researchers at the National Aeronautics and Space
Administration’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory and the University of
California. They state that the glacial retreat may already have reached
the point of no return, the Journal’s
Robert Lee Hotz reports.
In the U.S., meanwhile, The White House rollout of a
climate-change report has been met with
marked indifference by the polled populace. Perhaps they are being wooed by editorials talking of scare tactics and “
unscientific panic.”
Presidential would-be Marco Rubio knows
on which side of the fence he sits, disclaiming the idea that the consequences of climate change can be averted
provided governments act aggressively.
TAX
Unexpected news from the turkey pen: this year, they are voting for Christmas.
Oklahoma oil man George Kaiser is breaking with fellow energy executives in
asking the state to raise taxes on oil companies, including his own.
Energy companies in Oklahoma pay 7% tax on oil and gas revenue. But
to encourage drilling with more costly shale wells, the rate is 1% for
the first four years.
Mr. Kaiser believes a higher tax on oil-and-gas production could help
the state pay for education and much needed infrastructure
improvements, the Journal’s
Daniel Gilbert reports.
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