The Ministry of Investment of the Libyan government, affiliated to the House of Representatives, issued a circular stating that the Board of Directors of the Libyan Investment Corporation had exempted the Board of Directors of the long-term investment portfolio for violation of the law.
The ministry revealed that this was for the purpose of seizing the portfolio’s funds to finance the Libyan Investment and Development Company (LIDCO), the Tripoli Gate “2” project, and attempting to transfer amounts of 350 million US dollars.
The Prime Minister-designate of Libya, Fathi Bashagha, announced on Monday a three-item roadmap where he committed to recovering the country after a period of corruption and missed opportunities.
The roadmap entitled “The Roadmap to Recovery” indicates three main points, represented in “holding free and fair presidential and legislative elections, working to establish peace, security, and stability, and achieving economic prosperity.”
Bashagha promised to protect everyone’s right to vote for elections or to participate in political life to guarantee a better future for Libya. He also stressed the importance of maintaining the stability of oil production by ensuring the continuous flow of oil without any interruption and providing the necessary funding for the National Oil Corporation, to improve its production capabilities and infrastructure.
Bashagha announced on Tuesday that he will hold meetings with members of the British House of Commons to discuss this roadmap.
It is noteworthy to state that Bashagha’s roadmap came five days after the approval of his government’s budget by the House of Representatives.
The Minister of State for Economic Affairs and the head of the committee formed to study the mechanism of replacing direct fuel subsidies with cash subsidies held a meeting today, Tuesday, in the presence of the Minister of Local Government, Badr Al-Din Al-Sadeq Al-Toumi, the Undersecretary of the Ministry of Economy and Trade for Economic Affairs, Saad Mohamed Abdullah, the Chairman of the Brega Petroleum Marketing Company Management Committee at the Cabinet Office, Ibrahim Ahmed Abu Breda, in addition to many others, in order to study the mechanism of replacing direct fuel subsidies with cash subsidies.
The terms of reference of the committee and the distribution of tasks were reviewed depending on the commission, and the recommendations made in the report on the reform of the fuel subsidy system and the implications for the legal, economic, social, security and technical aspects of the subsidy mechanism were presented.
The need to study the method and how to implement subsidy replacement and benefit from the experiences of other countries and the possibility of raising subsidies at a rate of (20%) was also discussed.
On their side, the attendees recommended the importance of forming a team to visit Egypt to see the mechanisms for implementing the partial lifting of subsidies, preparing a database that includes the real quantities of imported and locally produced fuels and knowing the value of cash support for each citizen according to the support budget.
They also stressed the need to hold workshops, seminars and press conferences to introduce the advantages of replacing direct with cash subsidies.
Today, Monday, the Brega Petroleum Marketing Company’s management committee held its sixth regular meeting for 2022 with the chairman and members of the monitoring body assigned by the National Oil Corporation, in the presence of the Chairman of the Management Committee Ibrahim Abu Breda and member of the Management Committee for Operations, Health, Occupational Safety and Environment, Faraj Al-Jaidi, the member of Management Committee for Engineering, Projects, Information and Communications Technology, Abdul Rahman Al-Abidi and the member of the Management Committee for Financial and Commercial Affairs, Ahmed Al-Majbari.
During this meeting, they discussed the agenda items, the progress of functional operations and targeted work programs during the coming period, and the difficulties facing the implementation of some programs.
Indonesia’s Medco Energi has initiated international arbitration at the International Criminal Court by filing a case against the National Oil Corporation to enforce its contractual rights under the Exploration and Production Sharing Contract as well as to protect its right to benefit from its investments in Libya.
According to the annual report of the Indonesian Medco Company for 2021, the International Court began on March 15, 2022, to take the arbitration decision in response to the attempts of the National Oil Corporation to circumvent its obligations with the Indonesian company.
In 2013, the company announced the official establishment of the Joint Operating Company for Area 47 with its partners, the National Oil Corporation and the Libyan Investment Authority, and in 2020, Medco was reportedly seeking to divest its interests in the region.
The Indonesian company confirmed that since acquiring its participating share in Area 47 in Libya from 2005 until 2009, has drilled, along with Verenex, 20 wells and 18 exploration wells that show evidence of oil, as the exploration success rate reached 90%, which is well above the average global pass rate.
According to a D&M report dated September 30, 2008, the total reserves of 282 million barrels of oil equivalent and the total contingency resources of 211 million barrels of oil equivalent were estimated in Area 47. After the acquisition of Verenex’s stake in Area 47 by the Libyan Investment Authority in 2009, Medco owns 50% of the participating stake in the exploratory area 47.
Medco said on its website that it is discussing with the National Oil Corporation a plan for the fast-track project of oil production facilities.
The heads of the committees formed from the State Audit Bureaus of Al-Bayda and of Tripoli signed a roadmap to end the contentious issues between them, under the auspices of the National Planning Council and its international partners: the United Nations, the United Nations Development Program in Libya UNDP, and the United States Institute for Peace USIP.
It was also agreed to set periodic dates for meetings and to prepare for the submission of a unified report to the legislative authority.
The Prime Minister-designate of the Libyan government, appointed by the House of Representatives, Fathi Bashagha, revealed today, Sunday, that “those who closed the oil fields looked at their miserable conditions, including power outage, poor education and deteriorating services, in addition to the billions spent and wasted on militias, corruption and fictitious companies, adding that they felt that the money they are making is wasted and that the government was not honest in spending, so they reacted by closing the oil fields partially and not completely.
Bashagha added, in televised statements, that the oil fields and ports will be restarted, when the people who closed them, see that the budget is spent correctly and the government has begun development measures, rationalization of spending, and improvement of living.
The Libyan Prime Minister-designate said: “We contacted the head of the National Oil Corporation, Mustafa Sanalla, and we were informed about part of the new mechanism for distributing revenues and increasing production. We agreed with the House of Representatives to submit a budget for the Corporation estimated at 34 billion dinars over 3 years, upon reviewing the entire plan of the Corporation.”
He explained that “the government had received offers from international oil companies to invest more than one billion dollars, noting that the National Oil Corporation needs huge sums, and we have allocated funds from Chapters One and Two to restore the dilapidated infrastructure and increase production.”
Oil and Gas Minister Mohamed Oun said in a statement to Reuters today that total oil production was about 700 thousand barrels per day without providing more details on the duration of the increase.
This statement came days after the Financial Times reported that Libya’s oil production stopped at about 700 thousand barrels per day, helping to alleviate concerns about the effects of the closure of oil terminals and ports on mass production, which Mr. Oun reconfirmed today.
The newspaper reported, based on a statement by one of the western diplomats, that what the Ministry of Oil stated last week about the decrease in production by 1.1 million barrels and the number provided is inaccurate. The same source considered that the actual production was significantly high and the decline recorded under daily production volatility was only 30 to 40% of total production.
The Ministry of Oil and Gas clarified today, Sunday, that the National Oil Corporation is attached to the Minister of Oil and Gas, and that the ministry has the right to supervise and control with direction, review, guidance or firm intervention if necessary according to the laws and regulations in force in the Libyan state in order to preserve the only source of income for Libyans.
It added that the National Oil Corporation is endowed with the authority to sell oil and gas since its establishment according to oil laws and not by a decision of the United Nations as some promote, noting that the goal of the Ministry of Oil is to produce oil and gas according to industrial standards and oil regulations to maintain the management of reservoirs and surface equipment and to preserve oil wealth, in addition to improving the sector’s performance to keep pace with global requirements to reduce emissions and climate change.
The ministry confirmed that the Corporation is withholding information and data from the ministry regarding the quantities that Libya produces of oil and gas.
Despite being guided several times by the prime minister, the Corporation continues being intransigent and defiant even with the head of the government, in addition to withholding ten billion and nine hundred million from the state treasury for a period of sixteen months with foreign companies, in which Libya lost tens of millions of dollars.
The Libyan Prime Minister-designate by the House of Representatives, Fathi Bashagha, said today, Sunday, in a television statement, that Libya’s only resource is oil, which is distributed to the east and southwest, while the rest of the resources, such as taxes and customs, have achieved only 4 billion in revenues, which is a matter of the utmost scandal, pointing to the government will adopt a diversification strategy.
In his statements, Bashagha mentioned that “the state’s general budget for 2022 was approved by law from the House of Representatives, and we also presented it to the State Council.”
The head of the Libyan government added: “I do not think that the Central Bank of Libya can refuse the budget, because it is the board of directors who decides according to the laws. It is not right that the governor rejects or accepts something by himself. It is necessary for the entire board of directors to meet to arrange the spending of this budget, otherwise, they become illegitimate.”
Bashagha also stressed that “there are international complaints about the legitimacy and transparency of the Central Bank, pointing out that if the Central Bank refuses to deal with this budget, it exposes itself to sanctions and international banks will refuse to deal with it, so I do not think that it will refuse.”
