The Minister of Oil and Gas in the Government of National Unity, Mohamed Aoun, renewed his demand to change the board of directors of the National Oil Corporation and dismiss Sanalla, accusing the current head of the corporation of committing several violations and that the decision to assign it was originally illegal.
Aoun said in televised statements that it was not the first time that he demanded the dismissal of the head of the Corporation, Sanallah. Rather, the number of correspondences in particular to the Council of Ministers reached five or six times, but Prime Minister Abdul Hamid Dbeibeh did not agree to that and did not present the issue to the Council of Ministers.
The Minister of Oil and Gas explained the reasons for his demand for the dismissal of Sanallah, on top of which is that the head of the corporation was assigned illegally and in violation of the corporation’s law; Where he was assigned from a non-relevant party, adding that he was initially assigned to the institution’s board of directors by the Transitional Council through Ali Al-Tarhouni, and then he was assigned by the Undersecretary of the Ministry of Oil, Omar Al-Shakmak, and at that time he was charged with the duties of the acting minister, which is also an illegal procedure, according to Aoun’s statement.
The Minister of Oil, Mohamed Aoun, went on to say: « If this logic is correct and these decisions are legal; I, as Minister of Oil, would have had the right, from the first day I held the ministry, to assign another person to head the corporation, so the violation of the law is crystal clear. »
Aoun indicated that the current directors board of the National Oil Corporation committed several violations, the latest of which was its request from three foreign companies, « Hess Corporation, ConocoPhillips and Total » to keep, taxes, rents and fees owed to the Libyan state to them since October 2020 until the value amounted to 10.9 billion dinars, stressing that it was forcing him, with notes and pressure from the Ministry of Oil, to return these funds to the state treasury through bonds in favor of the Ministry of Oil.
The Minister of Oil accused the head of the corporation, Sanallah of mismanagement, abuse, interfering with oil companies, traveling without permission, and violating all procedures, even those issued by the Council of Ministers, including the decision to return the sovereign departments to the ministry, which until now has not been handed over to the Ministry of Oil, according to what was stated in Aoun’s statements.
