No end in sight in the war for Libya’s oil

Production and exports have collapsed and may fall further. The country may be split in two. Oil is at the centre of the zero-sum conflict

UNITED Nations officials breathed a sigh of relief on 1 May when the owners of Indian-registered tanker Distya Ameya obeyed instructions not to transport a cargo of oil being sold by Libya’s eastern government in Tobruk. The decision by the owners to sail the tanker back to Libya, to territory controlled by Tobruk’s rival, the UN-backed government, seemed to have choked off attempts by eastern Libya to sell independently. The tanker episode was the opening shot in a worsening struggle between the country’s rival governments for Libya’s oil. Those governments now number three, with the arrival in March of the UN-supported Government of National Accord (GNA). Forbidden from selling crude itsel