Qaddafi Forces Strike Central Oil Ports to Halt Rebel Advance Along Coast

[Purveyor]

By Ola Galal and Robert Tuttle

March 9 (Bloomberg) -- Muammar Qaddafi’s forces carried out air and artillery strikes on central oil ports to halt a rebel advance along the coast, while stepping up attacks on towns in the west that have risen up against him.

Troops were within 20 kilometers (12 miles) of Ras Lanuf, the western-most town in opposition hands, the Associated Press said. Warplanes sent from Qaddafi’s home region of Sirte struck the Ras Lanuf refinery, the country’s largest, Al Jazeera television said. Libya’s state broadcaster blamed damage in the town on retreating rebels. Most of the port of Sidra was destroyed and an oil terminal was hit, Al Jazeera said.

Qaddafi “lost control of most of the export outlets when the opposition gained ground in the first week of the uprising. Now he is trying to take back control,” Samuel Ciszuk, senior Middle East energy analyst at IHS Global Insight in London, said today in a phone interview. “If you have a stalemate with nobody controlling any of these facilities, there won’t be any oil exports or revenues.”

The U.S. and its allies are debating ways to stop Qaddafi’s attacks. President Barack Obama and U.K. Prime Minister David Cameron agreed to plan a “full spectrum of possible responses,” including the imposition of a no-fly zone. Rebel leaders say that the grounding of Qaddafi’s planes will help them win the war and end his regime, and the proposal also won backing from Arab nations.

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