Marica Micallef

After many protests and port blockades over several weeks, amid the new rift in Libya’s political class over who should be governing the country, Libya has announced force majeure on oil exports. The newspaper Oil Price reports:

“Libya’s National Oil Corporation (NOC) declared force majeure on crude exports from its oil terminals amid continued blockades of production and ports, which have severely crippled Libya’s oil exports.”[1]

NOC said that “Libya’s exports have recently ranged from 365,000 barrels per day (bpd) to 409,000 bpd, which is a decrease of 865,000 bpd compared to “normal production rates under normal circumstances.”

“The new outage in Libya comes as the market grapples with the loss of Russian oil supply due to the Western sanctions on Moscow and could further tighten the physical market.”

Even if this is big news on its own, Europe should also be taken into account because all this means that the 6% of EU oil & gas imports which are from Libya were just taken off the table; the EU imports 34% of its gas and 55% of its oil from Russia, which is being restrained; an explosion which occurred at the Freeport terminal in TX has made it unable to send LNG[2] and the UK just announced they’d stop gas exports to EU if there were shortages[3].

Because of the high cost of energy, greenhouses, food plants, and other facilities have already been closed. This is an absolute controlled demolition.

The notion here is that we are at yet another tipping point and that a government shutdown is imminent unless it drastically takes over centralized control of the economy. In her September 2020 article “Avoiding a Climate Lockdown”,[4] Mariana Mazzucato, founding director of the Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose, writes:

“Under a “climate lockdown,” governments would limit private-vehicle use, ban the consumption of red meat, and impose extreme energy-saving measures, while fossil-fuel companies would have to stop drilling. To avoid such a scenario, we must overhaul our economic structures and do capitalism differently.”

What Mazzucato proposes, is no capitalism at all, but authoritarianism. Another extract for example reads:

“We need to reorient our energy system around renewable energy – the antidote to climate change and the key to making our economies energy-secure. We must therefore evict fossil-fuel interests and short-termism from business, finance, and politics. Financially powerful institutions such as banks and universities must divest from fossil-fuel companies. Until they do, a carbon-based economy will prevail.”

Isn’t all this what we are slowly and quietly being pushed to?

As the price of gas and oil soars, the globalist International Energy Agency (IEA) is also urging for energy lockdowns. It is asking for more lockdowns on general people, such as banning cars on Sunday and only letting specific license registered vehicles on the road on certain days. 

According to Climate Depot[5], the website managed by former Capitol Hill staffer Marc Morano, other actions suggested in the agency’s “A 10-Point Plan to Cut Oil Use”[6] include lowering speed limits, working from home, reducing business air travel, and enacting an SUV “tax.”

The report states: “Governments have all the necessary tools at their disposal to put oil demand into decline in the coming years, which would support efforts to both strengthen energy security and achieve vital climate goals.”

Among the proposals: “Reducing highway speed limits by about 6 miles per hour; more working from home; street changes to encourage walking and cycling; car-free Sundays in cities and restrictions on other days; cutting transit fares; policies that encourage more carpooling; cutting business air travel.”

UK is already planning to follow the above IEA suggestions, as under a new strategy to reduce the UK’s dependency on oil as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine continues to affect demand, British drivers may not be allowed to drive on Sundays. Other ideas include lowering the speed limit on highways to 64 mph and allowing people to work three days a week from home.[7]

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[1] https://oilprice.com/Energy/Crude-Oil/Libya-Declares-Force-Majeure-On-Oil-Exports.html

[2] Explosion at US natural gas plant raises risk of shortages in Europe | Texas | The Guardian

[3] UK Planning to End Gas Exports to Europe in Event of Shortages (breitbart.com)

[4] https://socialeurope.eu/avoiding-a-climate-lockdown

[5] https://www.climatedepot.com/2022/03/18/international-energy-agency-report-urges-energy-lockdowns-due-to-russian-war-banning-use-of-private-cars-on-sundays-reducing-highway-speed-limits-more-working-from-home-cutting-business-air-t/?mc_cid=64070fc158

[6] https://www.iea.org/reports/a-10-point-plan-to-cut-oil-use

[7] https://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/news/uk-world-news/oil-crisis-plan-could-see-23467299