Libya Faces Severe Power and Fuel Shortages Despite Vast Oil Reserves

TRIPOLI: Persistent power outages and acute fuel shortages are disrupting everyday life in Libya, a nation already hampered by prolonged political deadlock, conflict and corruption despite boasting Africa’s largest oil reserves.
As summer temperatures climb, the worst energy crunch in years is tightening its grip on Libyans who struggle to keep cool, power their homes, vehicles and businesses.
Analysts and UN officials trace the problem to endemic corruption, weak governance and years of neglected maintenance at power stations.
Libya sits on roughly 48 billion barrels of proven oil and pumps about 1.5 million barrels per day, with ambitions to lift output to two million barrels daily.
Yet the country produces only about one‑third of the fuel it consumes domestically; last year it imported fuel worth $7.8 billion, according to the National Oil Corporation.
For ordinary citizens, the crisis has meant spoiled food, halted operations and unbearable heat.
With temperatures nearing 50 °C in some areas, Slimane Fitouri routinely checks the generator he purchased to mitigate power cuts at his Tripoli grocery store.
“Because of the outages, two refrigerators failed and dairy products went bad,” Fitouri told AFP. “I don’t know how much longer I can keep going.”
During an AFP visit to his shop, the electricity died, customers rushed to finish purchases by phone light while Fitouri fired up the generator.
‘Very expensive’
Such generators demand large amounts of fuel, which has become a financial strain for Fitouri.
“It’s very costly and effectively doubles my losses,” he said.
The shortage has also pushed up generator prices as demand surged.
Abderrahmane Souissi, a health‑ministry employee, examined several generators in a Tripoli shop but deemed them prohibitively pricey.
“Their prices are steep and the fuel to run them is scarce,” he told AFP. “It’s baffling to live in a resource‑rich nation and face this.”
“I have four children, and my wife insisted I buy a generator so they could sleep despite the heat and humidity,” he added. “Our entire frozen‑food stock spoiled.”
Meanwhile, motorists are queuing for kilometers at petrol stations across western and central Libya.
Abdeslam Zarti, leaning against his car while waiting for gasoline, said waits can stretch “six hours or more, with vehicles lining up for distances that sometimes reach four kilometres.”
‘Poor governance’
Libya has been politically split for over a decade since the 2011 uprising that toppled Muammar Qaddafi.
Two rival administrations vie for control: the UN‑recognized government in Tripoli and the opposing authority in Benghazi backed by military commander Khalifa Haftar.
“Libya falls short of meeting its energy demand during peak periods, and the electricity and fuel crises are complicated by the fact that, although an oil producer, the country relies heavily on fuel imports,” international‑relations researcher Bechir Jouini told AFP.
He added that the situation worsens due to “oil smuggling and the lack of maintenance programmes for power plants.”
Jouini also blamed mismanagement and corruption in the energy‑sector budget allocations.
“Libya possesses the resources and funds, yet suffers from poor governance and rampant corruption … despite massive budget allocations to the electricity company,” he said.
UN envoy Hanna Tetteh linked the energy turmoil to broader institutional failures.
“The recent widespread electricity outages and public discontent, intensified by a prolonged heatwave, reveal the fallout from institutional fragmentation, large‑scale diversion of public resources, underinvestment and uncoordinated decision‑making—all symptoms of governance failure,” she told the UN Security Council.
“It is contradictory that this is happening in a country endowed with abundant energy resources and Africa’s largest petroleum reserves,” Tetteh noted.
Early this month a key fuel depot holding about 4.5 million litres of petrol was struck by several drone attacks in Zawiya, roughly 45 km (27 mi) west of Tripoli.
Zawiya has long been a flashpoint for armed groups competing over territory that serves as a hub for fuel smuggling, drug trafficking and migrant movements.

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