Power cuts strain small enterprises
Libya – A Reuters report highlighted the impact of electricity outages and fuel shortages on citizens and small businesses in Libya, quoting Nassim Al-Akkari, owner of a restaurant chain in Tripoli, as saying that the cuts the country has lived with for years now threaten his business amid summer heatwaves.
Restaurant losses and shop closures
Al-Akkari said, during an interview in which the power cut more than ten times, that he had suffered losses of about $40,000 over a few months and had been forced to buy diesel on the black market to run generators and prevent goods from spoiling. He added that outages in Qasr Ben Gashir can last up to 36 hours, pushing generator running costs to around 10,000 dinars a day.
In Benghazi, Sofiane Boushaala, manager of a family confectionery shop, said the cuts had forced the shop to lay off some staff and close for days at times. Reuters said the General Electricity Company did not respond to its requests for an interview on the power-supply crisis.
Heat, gas and fuel smuggling
The report linked the crisis to higher temperatures, global energy disruptions, worn infrastructure and fuel smuggling in an oil-producing country that aims to increase gas exports to Europe. Analyst Jalil Harchaoui said heatwaves had raised air-conditioner use and pressure on the grid, coinciding with a shortfall in gas production that pushed some plants to use liquid fuel whose supplies are hit by smuggling.
Analyst Tim Eaton said the outages embody a wider institutional failure: Libya, by his estimate, imports more fuel than is needed for power generation, and part of it leaks out of the official system through corruption and bribes protected by political influence. Citizens, he said, bear the cost for limited services. The report closed with a complaint from Khaled Al-Turki, who was waiting for fuel in central Tripoli, that an oil-producing country cannot resolve shortages of petrol and diesel.
