Lunes 21/02/11, Semana del GDP, bienes duraderos, casas

[jonibol]

El gobierno decidió transferir las acciones de las azucareras a los trabajadores. ¿Fin del problema o fin de las azucareras?

[admin]

Las petroleras han suspendido operaciones en Libia.

La violencia en el Africa comienza a impactar la produccion de petroleo el Lunes, mientras las companias internacionales de petroleo que trabajan en Libia suspendian operaciones y los trabajadores abandonaban el lugar.

Dos de las tres mayores companias de ratings le rebajaron la calificacion de deuda a Bahrain y Libia.

El Brent crude llego a sobrepasar los $105 el barril, su nivel mas alto en dos anios y medio.
Oil Companies Suspend Operations in Libya
By GUY CHAZAN
The violence in North Africa began to impact oil production Monday, as international oil companies working in Libya shut down operations and flew staff to safety amid intensifying clashes between supporters and opponents of Col. Moammar Gadhafi.

A recent view of oil and gas fields in Tripoli, above. Amid the violence, foreign oil companies are halting operations.
.Concerns about the impact the upheaval could have on global supplies drove up the price of oil Monday, with Brent crude, the European benchmark grade, at one point topping $105 a barrel—its highest level in 2½ years. Brent crude for April delivery rose $2.37 to $104.89 a barrel on the ICE Futures exchange on Monday. U.S. markets were closed for the Presidents' Day holiday Monday.

Two of the three major ratings agencies downgraded their stances on Bahrain and Libya, pushing sovereign-debt insurance costs in the Middle East and North Africa higher on Monday. Fitch Ratings downgraded Libya to BBB because of an "eruption of political risk," while Standard & Poor's Ratings Services lowered its sovereign rating on Bahrain to A-minus, expecting demonstrations there to persist despite the government's use of force.

The evolving unrest threatens to undo years of effort by companies such as BP PLC and governments like the U.K.'s, which—hungry for access to Libyan oil—courted Col. Gadhafi in the face of heavy political criticism.

Until this week, the unrest convulsing North Africa and the Middle East had little material effect on the global energy balance. Oil tankers continued to move through the Suez Canal despite the mass protests that toppled Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak.

That changed Monday when Wintershall, the oil and gas exploration arm of Germany's BASF AG and one of the largest operators in Libya, said it was suspending around 100,000 barrels a day of output— roughly twice Bahrain's daily production. Wintershall also said it was flying out 130 expatriate staff, or a third of its total work force in Libya.

Wintershall, which has been active in Libya since 1958, currently operates eight onshore oil fields in the Libyan Desert, about 350 kilometers 219 miles southwest of Benghazi—the coastal city that has reportedly fallen to opponents of Col. Gadhafi's rule.

Eastern Libya, where most of the unrest is concentrated, accounts for about half the country's 1.8 million barrels a day of oil production, according to the International Energy Agency. The leader of the eastern Al Zawiya tribe has threatened to halt oil exports if the violence against protesters continues.

David Fyfe, the IEA's senior oil markets analyst, said the loss of so much production was "of course a source of concern," but "not a cause for panic." It wouldn't have any major impact on supplies, he said.

Also Monday, BP said it had suspended preparations for a planned drilling campaign in the Libyan Desert, and was preparing to withdraw staff and their families. The U.K.-based oil giant doesn't yet produce any oil or gas in Libya but has an ambitious exploration program.

Italy's ENI SpA, the biggest producer in Libya with about 244,000 barrels a day, said it was evacuating all nonessential staff and their dependents, though it said this would have no impact on its output. Statoil ASA, the Norwegian oil company, said it had shut its office in the Libyan capital, Tripoli.

In the 1970s, Libya was one of the biggest oil producers in the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, pumping more than three million barrels a day. For a brief period, it produced more than Saudi Arabia, OPEC's linchpin.

But following the 1969 coup that installed Col. Gadhafi as Libya's leader, and the subsequent nationalization of the oil industry, production declined sharply, hit by international sanctions, OPEC quotas and mismanagement.

Libya now produces about 1.8 million barrels a day of oil—around 2% of global supply. Much of that is exported, and any disruption could hurt Mediterranean refiners in southern France, Italy and Spain.

But despite world-wide jitters, oil markets currently are well-supplied, analysts say. Though inventory levels have tightened over the past six months, there are still adequate stocks to cover forward demand. In a pinch, OPEC can start up some of its six million barrels a day of spare capacity if supplies run tight.

Since U.S. and European sanctions on Libya were eased in 2004, international oil and gas companies have flocked in, attracted by its estimated 44.3 billion barrels of oil reserves—the largest in Africa. In 2007, BP signed a $900 million deal with Libya, its biggest exploration commitment ever. Royal Dutch Shell PLC signed a similar landmark transaction two years earlier.

The BP transaction—struck in Libya by Col. Gadhafi and then-U.K. Prime Minister Tony Blair—became known as "The Deal in the Desert," and it carried substantial risks. It came as Mr. Blair and the U.K. government pressed for a prisoner-transfer agreement that could have allowed Abdel Baset al-Megrahi—the only person ever convicted in the deadly 1988 bombing of a commercial jet flight over Scotland—to be returned to Libya.

Mr. Megrahi, who has prostate cancer, was ultimately released last year under Scotland's provision for compassionate release. But the push the U.K. and BP made on his behalf has haunted the company and the British ever since, leading to a long series of investigations in the U.K., Scotland and the U.S. that continues today. Scrutiny of Britain's dealings with Col. Gadhafi is likely to intensify as the Libyan leader resorts to violence to remain in power.

Over time, Libya has carried out a number of oil and gas licensing rounds, awarding exploration permits to a wide spectrum of Western oil companies. The results have been mixed, and the initial enthusiasm that accompanied the lifting of sanctions has worn off. A dearth of big discoveries has prompted some companies, such as the U.K.'s BG Group PLC, to exit Libya altogether.

Western firms also have balked at moves by Libya's state-run national oil company to significantly tighten the fiscal terms of its production-sharing contracts with foreign oil majors. Analysts say the contracts are now so tough that they will struggle to make much profit from developing their discoveries.The country has proved a tough place to do business, marred by a Byzantine bureaucracy, slow decision-making and the capricious behavior of its leader. That has led many to question Libya's ambition to restore its production to its 1970s peak of more than 3 million barrels a day by 2015.

International SOS Assistance Inc., a security-assistance company, has been working with multinational companies to fly employees out of Libya. As of Monday evening, they hadn't evacuated anyone.

"Getting landing permits is becoming a challenging exercise," said Alex Puig, regional security director for the Americas. International SOS also arranged flights out of Tunisia and Egypt, and while arranging flights from Cairo was difficult, Mr. Puig said, it was feasible because the military and airports were still operating. The disarray in Libya's government further complicates the situation, he said, but the company expects to begin evacuations Tuesday.

—Benoit Faucon, Tahani Karrar-Lewsley, Paul Sonne and Dana Mattioli contributed to this article.