On the recordMarch 2, 2011
Mr. President, I want to take a few minutes to discuss the increasing oil prices that we are observing each day and the evolving situation in the Middle East and North Africa. From an oil market perspective, the turmoil in the Middle East changed course just over a week ago, and it changed course when Libya joined the group of countries that are witnessing historic popular uprisings. Libya is the first major energy exporter in the region to experience such an uprising. At the moment, as much as 1 million barrels per day of Libya's total 1.8 million barrels per day of oil production is offline, with continued political turbulence threatening to take even more oil offline before order is restored. It appears that international oil companies, which are responsible for over 40 percent of Libyan oil production, have removed their personnel from the country, and that has led to shutdowns of most fields operated by those international companies. For the moment, it appears that the Libyan national oil companies themselves are mostly continuing to produce and export oil, although there might be some limited production losses in national oil company production as well. There is reason to be concerned that the situation in Libya and throughout the region could become worse before it improves.
