Libya and Oil

Per my previous article on Libya on the various fighting across the country, one should wonder how is it that oil still flows from Libya? (Also, this oil question relates to how in the world can Iran and Saudi Arabia still be in OPEC together.) Well, it basically comes down to money.



Per the Reuters article:

In the most recent incident, an armed group forced a two-day shutdown at Sharara in early October to demand salary payments, fuel supplies and the release of members that it said had been detained.

A new group called “Enough Silence”, made up of young people from six districts in southern Libya, has said it will peacefully blockade supply roads to Sharara to lobby for oil revenues to be spent on the neglected south.

Yeah, everyone knows that they can demand a piece of the pie, but to do so they need the oil to continue to flow.

Of interest, are the notes in the article about a lack of investment and how production from the "easy and cheap" locations are over and now more investment is needed to extract oil from the less easy and cheap locations. This sounds a bit like Venezuela. In Venezuela, money was given to the poor and not enough was investment in oil infrastructure. Is it possible that too much is being siphoned off by these various groups who want a cut of the oil profits, but so many groups are making demands that not enough money is being spent on investments? And will this eventually cause Libya oil production to drop off?