Libya Energy Situation

Libya
Lebanon Flag.png	Libya Location.png
Capital	Tripoli (32°52′N 13°11′E)
Official language(s)	Arab (official), English, Italian
Government	Interim Government
Head of Government	Ali Seidan
Total area	1,759,540 km2
Population	6,002,347 (July 2013 est.)
Rural population	22% of total population (2010)
GDP (nominal)	81.9 billion US $ (2012 est.)
GDP Per capita	12,777 US$ (2012 est.)
Currency	Libyan Dinar
Time zone	GMT+2
Electricity generation	26.95 TWh/year (2008)
Access to Electricity	%
Wind energy (installed capacity)	MW(Year)
Solar Energy (installed capacity)	MW (Year)

Overview

With about 1,76 sq km, Libya is the second biggest North African country. Located between Algeria and Tunisia in the west and Egypt in the east, Libya also borders the Mediterranean Sea in the north and (from west to east) Niger, Chad and the Sudan in the south. Virtually a hundred percent of its land territory is land area. Apart from the access to the mediterranean sea (about 1,770 km of coastline), Libya has virtually no accessable water resources on the earth's surface, which consists to more than 90% of desert or semi-desert. Libyan climate ranges from Mediterranean along the coast line to extremely dry in the interior when going south. Although the barren, flat and undulating plains allow only a limited amount of land (1.03% of total territory) to be arable, Libya’s soil is hiding great richness. Most prominent natural resources are petroleum, natural gas and gypsum. Especially the first two natural resources are the main driving factor for the Libyan economy. Hydrocarbons contribute about 95% of export earning, 65% of the GDP and about 80% of government revenue. It is also due to the fossil resources, that Libya has always enjoyed a fairly high international interest and relevance. Although the revolution of 2011, which has brought the old regime of Colonel Muammar Gaddafi to a downfall, has impeded economic activities, it is also widely considered to be an unique opportunity for entrepreneurial activity and thus economic growth.

The ethnic composition of the population is mainly given by Arabs, arabized Berbers, Tuareg and Tubu. A vast majority of approximately 97% of the population avows itself to the religion of the Islam (Sunni Muslim). Main national language is arabic.

Libyan politics have been marked by the Arabic spring that took place in 2011. It ended with the defeat of the old Libyan regime and the death of the official ruler of the Libyan Arab Republic Colonel Muammar Gaddafi. The ousted regime had been opposed by the National Transitional Council (NTC) that had formed in the rebel stronghold of Benghazi. After the international recognition of the NTC as the governing body of Libya, an interim government has been officially inaugurated on the 24th of October 2011 with Abdel Rahim el Kib as the head of government. The constituent assembly is supposed to be elected in the first half-year of 2012.

Libya's economy is dominated by the oil sector. Around 95% of export revenues is generated by the energy sector. Besides the petroleum and petrochemicals industry, Libya is also active in the aluminum, iron and steel and cement industry. In 2012 crude oil, refined petroleum products, natural gas and chemicals were exported to Italy (23.5%), Germany (12.5%), China (11.3%), France (9.7%), Spain (7.6%), UK (4.7%) and US (4.5%).

Energy Situation

Energy Supply

In 2009, Libya has produced about 87,136 ktoe of energy, which is about 1,013,391.7 GWh. Clearly, crude oil is by far the most prominent energy source, making up almost 85% of energy production. Another interesting fact is that renewable energies (at least for the year of 2009) have been neglected entirely. More current sources suggest that renewable energy production has risen to about 1%. Published by the IEA, the table below offers further information on Libya's total energy production in 2009.

Total energy production (2009)

Energy source	in ktoe	in %
Coal and peat	0
Crude oil	73,983	84.9
Oil products	0
Natural gas	12,984	14.9
Nuclear	0
Hydro	0
Geothermal, solar, etc.	0
Biofuels and waste	168	0.002
Electricity	0
Heat	0
Total1	87,136	100.00

¹Due to roundings, the percentages may not add up to a hundred.

Key Problems of the Energy Sector

There are several aspects of the Libyan energy sector that can be considered to be quite problematic. Due to the quantity of fossil energy sources, renewable energy sources have ever since been considered to be of secondary relevance. Although first efforts of intiating and developing a renewable energy sector under the pre-revolutionary government, the pursuit of a diversified and sustainable energy sector has been limited. Instead of being empathic on developing alternative energy sources, the old regime has strongly subsidised energy coming from domestic fossil sources. It developed and maintained a fairly one-sided economy that heavily relied (and still relies) on the occurence of fossils. This does not only aggravate future efforts to reform Libya's energy sector, it also cancels out the expected effect of renewable energies bringing along economic advantages. From a more general point of view, there has been no economic incentive to shift to a more sutainable energy mix, so far.

Institutional Setup in the Energy Sector

Post-revolutionary developments have seen the establishment of a Ministry of Electricity and Renewable Energy with Minister Awad Ibrahim Bryk as head. This is an encouraging step towards the integration of the subjects of renewable energy and energy efficiency into the national agenda, as both themes have not been given a ministerial status in the past. Moreover, Libya's energy sector unsurprisingly relied virtually solely on fossil fuels, with renewables playing a very negligible part if any at all. Energy prices for the domestic market were heavily subsidised by the government and renewable energies were not considered to be a likely alternative to the fossil energy resources.

These new developments could be considered to bear the potential of a turn of the tides, as Libya has not only seen the establishment of a new ministry, but also the resumed work of the Renewable Energy Authority of Libya (REAoL) that had accomplished remarkable pre-revolutionary work - although that work had only been in theory. Ambitious goals that have been described by REAoL, have never been considered or included in legal frameworks and official goals.

The state-owned electricity company General Electricity Company of Libya (GECoL) is responsible for power generation, transmission and distribution. The equivalent of this monopoly in the oil sector is held by the National Oil Corporation (NOC).