Libyans form a National Council
The Libyan revolution seems to be picking up momentum with every passing day. A Libyan National Council has been formed in Benghazi by the anti-Gaddafi protesters of the eastern parts of Libya. They have promised to free all the parts of Libya that are still being controlled by the Dictator. This council has claimed that is has no intentions of acting as a temporary government. All the major countries in the world including the United States have openly extended their support to the anti-government protesters.
Libyans want their secularity
The US Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton will be in Geneva, where leaders from all over the world will meet to discuss the Libyan crisis. The world has severely condemned killing of civilians. The spokesman of the newly formed National Council, Hafiz Ghoga, however, has made it very clear that the Libyans want to be secular. He said Libyans are capable of winning their freedom and will not appreciate any sort of foreign interference. He also said that nothing has yet been finalized about the membership and working of the council.
Revolution spurs international oil crisis
The oil prices all over the world have soared as a result of the Libyan liberation movement. The oil fields have been massively hit and burgled by protesters. The mining equipments have been damaged. The scared oil field workers have stopped coming to work fearing Gaddafi’s rebuttal on protesters. The European countries that have oil investments in Libya are operating under crisis mode and trying to evacuate the workers to safety. The quantity of oil still being mined is unclear, although the International Energy Agency has given a rough estimate, saying that around 850,000 barrels per day is still being pumped. The normal quantity, however, is 1.6 million barrels.
Europeans worst hit
The European nations are the worst hit by the Libyan crisis, as they get a huge amount of oil for their functioning from Libya. Since all communication routes in Libya are damaged or not functioning, getting the exact information about how much oil is still being produced had become difficult. As a result the Europeans are unable to gauge the quantity of oil that they may get. A large quantity of crude oil that Europe gets from Libya is used in the aviation industry. So, in the light of the current crisis, Europe will have to face serious problems.
Container ships halt service
The shipping of crude oil has almost come to a halt as all the big shipping companies have suspended operations. There is no concrete word as to when the ships will start to function again. As a result, all the crude oil reservoirs have been filling up. Oil production has been forced to stop due to unavailability of storage space.
Evacuation
Meanwhile, evacuation is going on in full swing. All the foreign nationals living in Libya are being rescued by their respective governments. According to sources, the evacuation planes are filled with double the number of evacuees than the normal plane capacity permits. Many foreigners, who are being flown out of Libya, have lost all their money, jewelry and savings. They are being forced to return home almost bankrupt because withdrawing money from banks and public sector holdings is impossible under the current crisis.