(Untitled)
Here is a good article on how Europe and the US could influence what's happening in Libya:
There are numerous steps the United States and its allies can take today to affect the immediate calculations of the Qaddafi regime. Europe buys 85 percent of Libya's oil, after all. And the West largely controls the international financial system through ( Read more... )
There are numerous steps the United States and its allies can take today to affect the immediate calculations of the Qaddafi regime. Europe buys 85 percent of Libya's oil, after all. And the West largely controls the international financial system through ( Read more... )
Comments 2
Firstly, oil is fungible. If A sells oil to B and C sells to D, then B decides not to buy from A any more, most of the time you just end up with A selling oil to D and C selling to B.
The only complication is delivery. And there things get uglier: Italy gets a lot of its oil from Libya and delivery costs would be higher if they bought from anyone else. So as well as not working very effectively as a sanction against Libya, it would hurt Italy. Italy's economy is currently going through the wringer.
Worse, this is a problem on a timescale of weeks, where oil purchase contracts exist on a timescale of months. Imposing sanctions would entail reneging on contracts. Libya is a member of OPEC and OPEC gets really intense when people renege on contracts to buy oil ( ... )
Reply
Those are all reasonable objections, but they're all on the level of "it'll be imperfect/expensive", rather than that it's entirely impossible.
"oil purchase contracts exist on a timescale of months. Imposing sanctions would entail reneging on contracts"
Presumably this only applies if oil companies individually stop honouring contracts, not if they are legally prevented from doing so.
As for timescale -- presumably there are many different contracts, which come up for renewal at different times. Surely it's an option to delay renewing whichever contracts are ending this week?
I'd also imagine that oil contracts have some kind of allowance for not continuing to ship oil when you're in the middle of a warzone. So maybe it'll happen by itself. Or maybe, somewhere along the line, somebody will drag out the safety argument a little longer than they otherwise might.
"it would hurt Italy"
Some kind of compensation system doesn't seem entirely beyond human possibility
"oil is fungibleYes. It's also bulky, and transported largely by ( ... )
Reply
Leave a comment