Libya energy crisis leaves parts of oil-rich country struggling

TRIPOLI: Long power cuts and severe fuel shortages have disrupted daily life in Libya, a country already plagued by an enduring political deadlock, conflict and corruption, and holding Africa’s largest oil reserves.
As the summer heat peaks, the worst crisis in years has tightened its grip on many Libyans who struggle to stay cool and keep their houses, cars and businesses running.
Experts and United Nations officials say the root of the problem lies in corruption, weak governance and years of inadequate maintenance at power plants.
Libya holds about 48 billion barrels of proven oil reserves and produces roughly 1.5 million barrels a day. It is seeking to raise output to 2 million barrels a day.
But the country only produces a third of the fuel it needs for domestic consumption. Last year, it imported $7.8 billion worth of fuel, according to figures from the National Oil Corporation.
For ordinary Libyans, the crisis has meant spoilt food and stalled businesses amid unbearable heat.
As temperatures approach 50C in parts of the country, Slimane Fitouri regularly checks the generator he bought to counter the power cuts at his grocery store in the capital, Tripoli.
“Because of the outages, two refrigerators broke down, in addition to dairy products going bad,” Fitouri told AFP. “I don’t know how long I can hold out.”
During AFP’s visit to his shop, the power went out, and customers hurried to finish their shopping by the light of their phones as Fitouri switched on the generator.
‘Very expensive’
But such generators require a significant amount of fuel — which has also become a burden for Fitouri.
“It’s very expensive and doubles the losses,” he said.
The crisis also drove up the price of generators themselves, as demand soared.
Abderrahmane Souissi, who works at the health ministry, examined several generators at a Tripoli shop but found them too expensive.
“Their prices are very high and the fuel to operate them is unavailable,” he told AFP. “It leaves you perplexed when you live in a resource-rich country.”
“I have four children, and my wife forced me to buy a generator because they can’t sleep with the heat and high humidity,” he said. “Our entire stock of frozen food spoiled.”
Meanwhile, motorists have formed lines kilometers long at petrol stations across western and central Libya.
Abdeslam Zarti, leaning against his car waiting for gasoline, said queues can take “six hours or more, with cars lining up in front of stations for distances that sometimes reach four kilometers.”
‘Poor governance’
Libya has been politically divided for more than a decade, after being plunged into war during the 2011 overthrow of former leader Muammar Qaddafi.
Two administrations are currently vying for power: a UN-recognized government in Tripoli and its rival in Benghazi, backed by military leader Khalifa Haftar.
“Libya produces less than its energy needs during peak periods, and the electricity crisis and fuel shortage are complex, since the country is an oil producer but relies on importing fuel,” international relations researcher Bechir Jouini told AFP.
But the issue is also compounded by “the problem of smuggling oil out of the country as well as the failure to implement maintenance programs for power plants,” Jouini said.
He also blamed mismanagement and corruption in the budgets allocated to the energy sector.
“Libya has resources and funds, but it suffers from poor governance and corruption is rampant … despite the allocation of huge budgets to the electricity company,” he said.
Hanna Tetteh, the UN envoy to Libya, has also linked the energy crisis to broader failures in the country’s institutions.
“The recent widespread electricity outages and public discontent, exacerbated by a prolonged heatwave, have exposed the consequences of institutional fragmentation, large-scale diversion of public resources, underinvestment and uncoordinated decision-making, all of which are essentially failures of governance,” the envoy recently yold the UN Security Council.
“The contradiction is that this is occurring in a country that does not lack energy resources and has the largest petroleum deposits on the African continent,” Tetteh said.
Earlier this month a key reservoir containing about 4.5 million liters of petrol was targeted by several drone attacks in Zawiya, some 45 kilometers (27 miles) west of Tripoli.
Zawiya has for years been the scene of armed conflict between rival groups who fight over the territory, which is a hotspot for fuel, drugs and migrants trafficking.