The Scramble for Access to Libya's Oil Wealth Begins

 In Clifford Krauss' article, he out lines the importance of Libya's oil wealth, although it only supplies less then 2% of the worlds oil, it is extremely important. Libya has a high grade of crude oil that refineries world wide depends on. All of the fighting in Libya has slowed down production, causing world wide companies to withdraw workers, and essentially causing oil prices to raise. If you could get Libya to be peaceful again, or at least stabilize, it would boost production and lower oil prices in Europe, indirectly lowering prices of gasoline on the East Coast of the United States.
   
      Now, obviously, there are Western nations, providing air support to rebels to make sure that their companies will have an upper hand when Libya is somewhat back on their feet. Countries such as Italy, France and the U.K are also trying to keep their relations with Libya in good standings because, just as Abdelhalil Mayouf, the spokesman for the Libyan rebel oil company has stated, he has no problems with the aftermoentioned countries, but Russia, China, and Brazil may face some political issues with Libya. They did not back strong sanctions against Qaddafi and his regime, unfortunately for them, all three countrise have large oil investments seeking deals in  Africa; Libya would be a prime for them. Some experts have said that it could take a few months to a year to get exports up and running, and since oil is Libya's most important export, it would be in their best interest to get their oil production up and running, currently Libya is only producing about 60,000 barrels of oil a day, which is 20% of what they normally would be exporting.
    Since countries such as Italy, France, Ireland, Switzerland and Austria depend on Libya for 15%-20% of their imports, it would be in their best interest to take action in helping Libya stablize so they can get back on their oil game. As for America, we do not rely on Libya for very many imports, but the reduction of Libya's high quality crude oil will push up our gas prices yet again, and since Obama had said he would not allow our gas prices to rise, it would be in our best interest to indirectly support Libya, whether it be through off the ground security, financial support to rebels, or backing countries such as France and the U.K in their attempts to help Libya. Hopefully, Libya will respect the contracts held with previous contracts, but you can only assume the rebels will renew contracts with the countries that supported them through this time.