No end in sight to Libyan stasis

Questions over the oil minister's competence are another new low for the crisis-racked North African producer

The chaos enveloping Libya’s oil sector has gone from bad to worse in June. Conflicting updates on the state of the country's production can now be added to blockaded ports and political wrangling. Confidence in oil minister Mohamed Oun has not been enhanced by his claim last Monday that protests had caused output to fall to 100,000bl/d, despite his officials insisting the true number was 700,000bl/d. Yesterday, Oun conceded said officials were correct, without explaining the discrepancy. The confusion has done nothing to reassure oil markets that Libya’s upstream sector has any sort of hand on the tiller, never mind a steady one. Protests began again in mid-April, shutting down two fields i