In a correspondence, the governor of the Central Bank of Libya (CBL), Siddik Al-Kabir, said that oil production reached 1.2 million barrels per day (bpd) and the National Oil Corporation (NOC) withheld revenues from the CBL in violation of the law.
Al-KabIr also accused the NOC’s Mustafa Sanalla of concealing US$3.2 billion of oil revenues in past years and not transferring them to the public treasury.
In a 5 pages long response to an inquiry by Libya’s Audit Bureau over obstructing oil revenues, Sanalla said:” I did that based on instructions issues by the government.”
For the first time ever, Al-Sarir Electricity Plant (Full capacity 855 MW) has been working today by gas supplies, after 11 years operated by liquid, Waha Oil announced on Wednesday.Al-Sarir station was supposed to operate with gas, but the lack of gas and the suspension of the completion of the gas pipeline prevented operating the station with gas.
Al-Sarir Power Station in southeastern Libya started operating with natural gas for the first time in 11 years, after it had been operating with diesel.
The announcement of operating the station with gas came after the completion of the gas pipeline and the development of the Al-Fareg field, which raised its natural gas production from 70 million to 250 million cubic feet per day, bringing the gas to the station.
The United Arab Emirates has stopped issuing new visas to citizens of 13 countries, according to a document issued by a state-owned business park.
It said applications for new employment and visit visas had been suspended for nationals, who are outside the UAE, of the 13 countries, including Afghanistan, Libya and Yemen, until further notice.
The visa ban also applies to citizens of Algeria, Kenya, Iraq, Lebanon, Pakistan, Tunisia and Turkey, the document says.
The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Resident Representative, Gerardo Noto, and the United Kingdom (UK) Ambassador to Libya, Nicholas Hopton, signed an agreement by which the UK donates 300,000 (US$ 395,656) to the UNDP Political Dialogue Programme to support UNSMIL-facilitated Libyan Political Dialogue Forum.
With this new contribution, the total fund from the UK to UNDP programmes reached £5,600,000 ($7,500,000) earmarked to support an inclusive political settlement in Libya, democratic governance and sustainable development.
As far as transferring the NOC’s revenues into a bank account, the Libyan banker Noman Al-Bouri said during a televised interview for WTV channel and Tabadul Platform that stopping the war and holding the meetings in Tunisia and Morocco could ever have been achieved without such agreement.
“Pumping oil brought stability, stopped the war, and gave the possibility that there could be revenues in case of reaching a political agreement,” Al-Bouri said.
“In case of transferring the revenues into a bank account, the National Oil Corporation (NOC) will continue pumping oil because suspending this process would negatively affect the infrastructure.” Al-Bouri added.
While answering the following question; “Who are the six individuals that control the sustenance of the Libyans?”, the spokesperson for the National Forces Alliance initiative, Mohamed Chubar, said during a televised interview for WTV channel and Tabadul Platform that the bank account that was set up in order to transfer the revenues of the state’s National Oil Corporation (NOC) aims to protect the revenues against theft.
“There is hardly any Libyan institution that has not been robbed.” The spokesperson said, adding that the amount of the looted funds is really large.
Chubar pointed out that the National Oil Corporation (NOC) has no right to suspend the transfer of revenues to the Central Bank of Libya (CBL) considering that it is no an oversight institution.
The new account number had been opened by agreement among the board of directors in Tripoli as well as in the Eastern region. This agreement, according to the spokesman, aimed at resolving the economic crisisand providing a great atmosphere for the political discussions.
With reference to the openness that has occurred recently, not only at the level of the country’s airports or seaports, but also at the level of oil, Chubar considered that Libya has moved to a post-conflict stage, stressing that the next phase would an be economic one.
“Serious steps related to the arms embargo in Libya have been taken under pressure from the United States, and checking the Turkish cargo ship that had been suspected of taking weapons to Libya is a proof of that.” He said.
Turkey prevented German forces belonging to an EU military mission carrying out a full search of a Turkish cargo ship that they suspected of taking weapons to Libya, both countries confirmed on Monday.
Soldiers from the frigate Hamburg boarded the Turkish freighter, the Rosaline A, on Sunday, but had to abandon checks and withdraw after Turkey protested to the EU mission, the German defence ministry said.
The frigate was operating in the Mediterranean as part of the EU’s Irini mission, which aims to stop arms reaching warring factions in Libya.
According to a report published by GlobeNewswire, much of the telecom infrastructure was destroyed or stolen following the 2011 disturbances, including about a quarter of the country’s mobile tower sites.
The report pointed out that reconstruction efforts continue to be stymied by political and military disturbances which affect much of the country. With two opposing administrations, based in Tripoli and Tobruk, there is no consensus as to how to rebuild infrastructure on a national scale despite numerous attempts to reach a political solution.
Although progress is being made in rebuilding telecom infrastructure, the mobile towers remain a target of the warring factions while civilians regularly cut telecom cables by mistake while engaged in construction work.
The report stressed that in early 2015 the state telco (along with many other businesses) decamped to Malta, and since then the two rival administrations have fought in the Maltese courts to assume control of the company. The economy, which largely collapsed in 2013 and 2014 with dramatic falls in GDP, showed remarkable growth in 2017 and 2018, though this was based on a very low base.
Growth in 2019 was a more moderate 9.9% though growth for 2020 is expected to be negative 58%. This is largely due to the effects of the pandemic, as also to the collapse in the price of oil on international markets
Considerable investment has been made in a national fibre backbone network, while upgrades have been made to existing international cables. Investments in telecom infrastructure totalling $10 billion were earmarked for the 15 years to 2020, though given the civil strife in recent years it is difficult to say how much of this has been put into effect.
The report also covered the responses of the telecom operators as well as government agencies and regulators as they react to the crisis to ensure that citizens can continue to make optimum use of telecom services. This can be reflected in subsidy schemes and the promotion of tele-health and tele-education, among other solutions.
A well-informed source told Sada Economic Newspaper that the the Attorney-General’s Office ordered on Thursday the arrest of the Under-Secretary of Education over charges for negligence and failure to preserve public funds.
