VOA标准英语2014--战斗仍在继续,利比亚石油产量仍不稳定

 

As Fighting Continues, Libyan Oil Production Remains¹ Volatile 战斗仍在继续,利比亚石油产量仍不稳定

As fighting between rival government forces in Libya continues, the country’s oil production sharply rises and falls. Production was reported to be 900,000 barrels a day in September, but that fell to about 500,000 barrels by November. Nevertheless, there’s plenty of crude available to meet world demand.

Libyan crude oil is among the world’s best because it can be refined into many products. But it no longer has the same market share it once did.

“It’s a very light crude. The world actually now has a lot of light cruder because of the surge in U.S. production. But still you get a very high yield of transportation fuels – distillate, gasoline – that kind thing," said John Kingston, global director of news for Platts, a leading provider of energy sector² information. "So you get a lot of the transportation fuels that have the most value and fewer of the fuels that have lesser³ value. So, it’s always been considered like the champagne⁴ of crudes.”

Kingston said that Libyan oil production almost disappeared after the fall of leader Moammar Ghadafi. It collapsed⁶ from more than a one-and-a-half-million barrels a day to just 50,000.

“It then kind of hung around like a hundred thousand barrels a day, 150,000 barrels a day. And then starting sometime in the summer it just shot up and got up to about a million barrels a day by the end of October. That is a staggering growth," he said. "I don’t know that I’ve ever seen growth from one country that fast to be honest. That was kind of like the last tipping point in the market that pushed it to its current decline because the market was just not prepared to absorb all that Libyan oil.”

Kingston said Libyan oil hit the market when crude was already plentiful⁷ -- so it was difficult to get the market share that Libya wanted. 

“The only way it could have done so is if the Saudis really step back and cut their production," he said. "And they weren’t going to give up 800-, 900,000 barrels a day of their own market just to make room for the Libyans. And it’s a different kind of crude, anyway. So I think the Libyan surge really did destabilize the market, which is, you know, good for consumers. Now in the past couple of days there’s been a downturn. There have been some problems out at the [El] Sharara field and the Elephant field. The two of those share a power source so when one went down they both went down.”

Libya’s turmoil⁸ makes it very difficult to forecast what will happen on the world oil market.

“That’s crazy volatility⁹ from one country in their supply lines. You just normally don’t see that,” Kingston said.

Keeping track of the rival militias¹⁰, he said, is another problem.

“It is very difficult I would say to follow the players without a scorecard. But I would just say that in terms of trying to measure the oil market the Libyans are a giant swing factor. Maybe more of a swing factor than I’ve ever seen in a short run in a long period of time.”

Despite the chaos¹¹ in the country, Kingston said, Libya manages to sell its oil with little trouble.

“Libya sells its own through the National Oil Corporation. Somebody commented a few years ago that in the craziness that was Libya the NOC was essentially¹² the only sort of rational, Western-looking institution in the entire country. Oh, they have no problem doing that. That’s not an issue,” he said.

He said despite the fighting, no company appears unwilling¹³ to deal with the Libyans.

OPEC – the Organization of the Petroleum¹⁴ Exporting Countries – meets November 27 in Vienna. The meeting comes amid forecasts that world oil demand next year will be under what OPEC is expected to produce. The Platts global director of news said that could create a market share war and a price collapse⁵. Despite that, Kuwaiti’s oil minister said he does not expect OPEC to cut its output.

1 remains   

n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹

参考例句：

• He ate the remains of food hungrily.他狼吞虎咽地吃剩余的食物。
• The remains of the meal were fed to the dog.残羹剩饭喂狗了。

2 sector   

n.部门，部分；防御地段，防区；扇形

参考例句：

• The export sector will aid the economic recovery. 出口产业将促进经济复苏。
• The enemy have attacked the British sector.敌人已进攻英国防区。

3 lesser   

adj.次要的，较小的；adv.较小地，较少地

参考例句：

• Kept some of the lesser players out.不让那些次要的球员参加联赛。
• She has also been affected,but to a lesser degree.她也受到波及，但程度较轻。

4 champagne   

n.香槟酒；微黄色

参考例句：

• There were two glasses of champagne on the tray.托盘里有两杯香槟酒。
• They sat there swilling champagne.他们坐在那里大喝香槟酒。

5 collapse   

vi.累倒；昏倒；倒塌；塌陷

参考例句：

• The country's economy is on the verge of collapse.国家的经济已到了崩溃的边缘。
• The engineer made a complete diagnosis of the bridge's collapse.工程师对桥的倒塌做了一次彻底的调查分析。

6 collapsed   

adj.倒塌的

参考例句：

• Jack collapsed in agony on the floor. 杰克十分痛苦地瘫倒在地板上。
• The roof collapsed under the weight of snow. 房顶在雪的重压下突然坍塌下来。

7 plentiful   

adj.富裕的，丰富的

参考例句：

• Their family has a plentiful harvest this year.他们家今年又丰收了。
• Rainfall is plentiful in the area.这个地区雨量充足。

8 turmoil   

n.骚乱，混乱，动乱

参考例句：

• His mind was in such a turmoil that he couldn't get to sleep.内心的纷扰使他无法入睡。
• The robbery put the village in a turmoil.抢劫使全村陷入混乱。

9 volatility   

n.挥发性，挥发度，轻快，（性格）反复无常

参考例句：

• That was one reason why volatility was so low last year.这也是去年波动性如此低的原因之一。
• Yet because volatility remained low for so long,disaster myopia prevailed.然而，由于相当长的时间里波动性小，灾难短视就获胜了。

10 militias   

n.民兵组织，民兵( militia的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The troops will not attempt to disarm the warring militias. 部队并不打算解除战斗中的民兵武装。 来自辞典例句
• The neighborhood was a battleground for Shiite and Sunni militias. 那里曾是什叶派和逊尼派武装分子的战场。 来自互联网

11 chaos   

n.混乱，无秩序

参考例句：

• After the failure of electricity supply the city was in chaos.停电后，城市一片混乱。
• The typhoon left chaos behind it.台风后一片混乱。

12 essentially   

adv.本质上，实质上，基本上

参考例句：

• Really great men are essentially modest.真正的伟人大都很谦虚。
• She is an essentially selfish person.她本质上是个自私自利的人。

13 unwilling   

adj.不情愿的

参考例句：

• The natives were unwilling to be bent by colonial power.土著居民不愿受殖民势力的摆布。
• His tightfisted employer was unwilling to give him a raise.他那吝啬的雇主不肯给他加薪。

14 petroleum   

n.原油，石油

参考例句：

• The Government of Iran advanced the price of petroleum last week.上星期伊朗政府提高了石油价格。
• The purpose of oil refinery is to refine crude petroleum.炼油厂的主要工作是提炼原油。