The International Energy Agency (IEA) said Libya’s civil war increased European demand for Colombian oil, in a press report released Wednesday.
According to the report, Europe accounts for 85% of Libya’s crude oil exports and was forced to look elsewhere during the civil war last year. Colombian crude oil exports to Europe reached 80 thousand barrels per day during this period.
The IEA said since the end of the war, “even though imports from Libya are growing they are still below pre-conflict levels. Consequently, European imports of light, sweet crude from Latin America remain above volumes from 2010.”
The report said one reason Europe chose Colombia’s oil as a replacement was because it matched the sweet crude (low sulfur) oil European refineries were importing from Libya. When refined, sweet crude yields higher levels of products such as gasoline, low sulfur diesel, and jet fuel.
The IEA also said technical problems for oil sites in the North Sea also added to European demand for Colombian oil.
The IEA is an autonomous intergovernmental organization established after the 1973 oil crisis. Based in Paris, the agency acts as a policy adviser to member states as well as non-member states such as China, India, and Russia.
