TRIPOLI, Libya – Libya has halted all of its oil deliveries to Switzerland and barred Swiss ships from its ports to protest the arrest of Moammar Gadhafi’s son in Geneva, a state-run shipping company said Thursday.
Libya’s General National Maritime Transportation Company stopped oil shipments to Switzerland on Wednesday, said the head of the company, Ali Bilhajj Ahmed. The company says it is the only Libyan-based firm supplying oil to Switzerland.
Libya supplies more than 50 percent of Switzerland’s crude imports, which totaled some 2.5 million tons in 2007, according to the latest available Swiss government figures. Nonetheless, the Swiss Petroleum Association said the country could cope with any cutoff and arrange to buy the oil elsewhere.
The oil freeze was Libya’s latest action in response to the arrest last week of Hannibal Gadhafi and his wife. Police arrested them on July 15 at a luxury hotel in Geneva for allegedly beating two of their servants, according to their lawyer. They were released on bail two days later and left the country.
Libya has recalled some of its diplomats from Switzerland, suspended the issuing of visas for Swiss citizens, reduced the number of flights to Switzerland and has detained two Swiss nationals on various charges, the Swiss Foreign Ministry said Wednesday.
Switzerland, in turn, warned its citizens not to travel to Libya.
Ahmed, of the Libyan shipping firm, would not provide a figure on the amount of oil involved, but he said the cutoff was appropriate, calling it the “least we should do.”
The Swiss Foreign Ministry and the Swiss branch of Libya’s state-owned oil company Tamoil declined to comment Thursday on the oil cutoff.
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- Honestly, Switzerland can always buy slightly more costly oil indirectly from Libya since oil is a openly traded commodities hence it can be sold to other countries and resold back to Switzerland hence nothing to worry about. However, if other countries themselves are in dire need of more crude oil then…there will be a serious implication.
Such events may sparks off some kind of conflicts in the region…hopefully it will not.
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