Libya is the scene of a battle ground between French oil giant Toto, Italian Eni which has been pumping 250,000 barrels a day of light sweet crude from Ras Lanuf and shipping it straight to Europe, Britains infamous BP which destroyed the Gulf,
threatens the arctic, allows its pipelines across the tundra to leak because of electrolysis due to lack of maintenance, made the deal to free the Lockerbie bomber so it could continue to drill offshore, got reneged on by Gaddafi and resumed drilling as soon as the US put a no fly zone into effect, Shell, AMOCO, Marathon, and the UAE representing the pirates of Dubbai who sought a deal with Gaddafi to ship Europe's oil through Iran and Afghanistan to China.
The United Arab Emirates Arabic: دولة الإمارات العربية المتحدة Al Imārāt al ‘Arabīyah al Muttaḥidah), often abbreviated as UAE or shortened to The Emirates (Arabic: الامارات Al Imārāt), is a federation situated in the southeast of the Arabian Peninsula in Southwest Asia on the Persian Gulf, bordering Oman and Saudi Arabia and sharing sea borders with Iraq, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar and Iran.
It consists of seven states, termed emirates (because they are ruled by emirs), which are Abu Dhabi, Ajman, Dubai, Fujairah, Ras al-Khaimah, Sharjah and Umm al-Quwain. The capital is Abu Dhabi, which is also the country's center of political, industrial and cultural activities.
What happens to Europe if its oil supply goes into brown out because Gaddafi makes more money selling it to China by way of the no longer controlled by Mubarek and now open to Iran and Dubai Suez canal?
Its oil reserves are ranked as the world's sixth-largest and the UAE possesses one of the most-developed economies in West Asia. It is the thirty-fifth-largest economy at market exchange rates, and has a high per capita gross domestic product (GDP), with a nominal per capita GDP of US$47,407 as per the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
Presumably it was after this that the US first seized the 6 billion in gold Gaddafi had for hard currency assets as a slap on the wrist to suggest it no longer felt it could trust him with Europe's supply of light sweet crude before it decided to play rough.
Why does Italy cherish a NATO takeover?Because the Italians do not want the Libyan rebels seeing the air war as largely an Anglo-French effort. Italy fears that, should the rebels succeed in overthrowing Moammar Gadhafi’s regime, they will repay the British and the French by giving them the most valued reconstruction and oil projects. If NATO takes control, Britain and France’s influence over rebel loyalties would be diluted, putting Italy on a more equal footing for the post-war reconstruction spoils, whenever that may come.
France has been resisting transferring military control to NATO. On Wednesday, however, France softened its position. It appears NATO will take over, though political control will go to a coalition that is to include non-NATO members Qatar and United Arab Emirates.
Italy, which ruled Libya as a colony for 30 years, until the Second World War, is especially worried about France muscling into the Libyan economy. Italy considers Libya part of its economic landscape. Eni, the Italian national oil company, and Europe’s fourth largest oil player, is the biggest investor in Libya. Before the war started, Eni was pumping about 250,000 barrels a day of Libyan oil, most of which went to Europe. Last year, according to Morgan Stanley research, 32 per cent of Libyan oil exports went to Italy (France, Germany and Spain were the other largest importers).
But French oil giant Total is also on the ground in Libya; it pumped about 50,000 barrels a day until the war virtually eliminated exports. Italy would go into a rage if the rebel forces, should they overthrow Ghadafi, were to reward Total with lavish oil concessions and investment opportunities in other projects, like highway construction, that the Italians consider their right.
There is also:
The Arabian Gulf Oil Company
The Azawia Oil Refining Company
Oilibya
Tamoil