Protests have erupted across Tripoli, Zawiya, and Misrata as Libya endures daily power outages lasting between six and ten hours, a direct consequence of a decade of fractured governance and underinvestment. The oil- and gas-rich nation now struggles to maintain basic services, highlighting the profound instability gripping the region.
Al Robyan, a popular seafood restaurant in Tripoli, recently made an unusual offer: a table laden with seafood in exchange for “some fuel for the generator.” The restaurant stated on Facebook that it had “run out of earthly solutions,” drawing thousands of responses and underscoring the severity of the crisis impacting everyday life.
Alaeddin Muntasser, a retired businessman in Tripoli, described the situation as an “electricity disaster,” noting its impact on every business. He cited one water-bottling plant severely affected by the blackouts, leading to a shortage of drinking water for a couple of weeks.
Many small restaurants have shut down; a few that can afford a generator to run their ovens have managed to open. Muntasser also reported that people in areas with the worst blackouts lost all the food stored in their freezers and refrigerators.
Libya generates roughly 70 percent of its electricity from natural gas, leaving its power grid highly exposed to falling gas production and disruptions at fields and pipelines. Oil accounts for almost all the remainder.
A Decade of Instability
The roots of Libya’s current electricity crisis trace back fifteen years, when a Nato-backed uprising toppled and killed longtime leader Muammar Gaddafi in 2011. Since then, the country has fractured, with rival administrations vying for control.
The internationally recognized government of Abdul Hamid Dbeibah leads in the west, while forces led by General Khalifa Haftar and foreign governments back a rival administration in the east. This political fragmentation has prevented any coherent national strategy for essential services.
Years of underinvestment in the power grid and gas production, combined with this year’s heatwave where temperatures hit 50C, have exacerbated the crisis. Karim Elgendy, executive director of the Carboun Institute, noted that “Oil wealth only becomes reliable electricity when institutions can convert it, and Libya’s institutions have been fractured for over a decade.”
Elgendy further explained that rival authorities issue competing decisions over the same grid, and the utility recovers almost none of its costs. Years of deferred maintenance have left the network running on aging equipment with no margin for error, making every summer a “stress test the grid is not ready for.”
The Cost of Fractured Governance
Jalel Harchaoui, a Libya specialist with the Royal United Services Institute, called Libya's failure to keep up with natural gas production capacity a “profound error with long-time consequences.” Gas still accounts for roughly three-quarters of the country’s electricity output, yet years have gone by “with no new natural gas project of any significance even being launched.”
Harchaoui stated that existing assets have been “shrinking in terms of output,” and even a new project greenlit today would take “at least seven or eight years” before producing results. He warned that Libya could within a few years be “humiliated to the point of having to import natural gas,” a reversal that would undercut any framing of Libya and Egypt as complementary energy partners.
Corruption has compounded these delays, according to Harchaoui, not only by diverting money but by slowing decision-making itself. He alleged that some power plant units installed between 2022 and 2025 were purchased secondhand and then passed off as new.
The country’s prime minister has claimed since five years ago, in 2021, to have “resolved” the crisis, yet unrest has concentrated in the west, where protest is easier to organize than under Haftar’s tighter grip in the east. Blackouts also hit the east and south, though less visibly.
Regional Energy Dynamics and Western Interests
In January of the same year, Egypt and Libya signed a memorandum of understanding to deepen cooperation in the oil and gas sector. Egyptian Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty and other Egyptian officials met with senior Libyan officials in July of the same year to discuss deepening energy ties between the two sides.
Following Libya’s electricity blackouts throughout July, Tripoli turned in part to Egypt, which boosted electricity export capacity to Libya by approximately 43 percent, reaching 100 megawatts. This extra supply, however, met only a fraction of Libya’s electricity needs, covering less than a tenth of its recent generation shortfall.
Libya also settled outstanding dues to Egypt totaling around $90 million. Elgendy noted the “complementarity between the two economies,” with Libya possessing hydrocarbons and Egypt offering refining, generation fleet, and contractors.
However, Elgendy also warned that Egypt’s own power system relies heavily on imported gas it does not control, and recent supply interruptions showed how quickly that exposure travels down the chain. A country importing electricity from Egypt is, indirectly, importing Egypt’s gas risk.
In a stark contrast to Libya's internal failures, Egypt has increasingly turned to Israel for energy security. Cairo signed a record $35 billion gas deal with Israel one year ago, in 2025, almost tripling its gas imports from the Israeli Leviathan gas fields. This marks the largest export deal in Israel’s history, showcasing Israel's critical role as a stable energy provider in a volatile region.