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A Long-Delayed Audit of Libya’s Central Bank Is to Go Ahead

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A long-delayed international audit of Libya’s central bank is finally going ahead after the country’s prosecutor threatened legal action and a military commander made it a condition to lift a crippling oil blockade, judicial officials said.

Bloomberg reported that the audit of the bank in Tripoli, which handles billions of dollars annually in oil revenues, is to be conducted by Deloitte. Western and Libyan officials had accused bank Governor Sadiq Al-Kabir of obstructing the audit after he referred a check to pay for the review to the Libyan Audit Bureau, which held it up on technical grounds. The review will also apply to a parallel central bank in the east that has received billions of Libyan dinars printed in Russia.

Kabir has denied that he was stalling. The review took on added urgency after the forces of eastern military commander Khalifa Haftar, who’d launched a war in 2019 to overthrow the internationally recognized government in Tripoli, said on Saturday that a six-month blockade of oil ports and fields would be lifted only when there was a mechanism to fairly distribute oil revenues and an audit. Haftar’s war has drawn in military intervention by the United Arab Emirates and state-linked Russian mercenaries on his side, while Turkey has backed the government in Tripoli.

On Wednesday, the Libyan prosecution was informed that the payment had finally gone through, a day after state prosecutor Sadiq Al Sour addressed Kabir and Audit Bureau head Khaled Shakshak to demand that the payment for the audit be processed, a source in the prosecution office told Bloomberg. In his letter, Sour said the delay was obstructing a prosecution investigation into money laundering.

Central bank and audit bureau officials didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.

OPEC+ eases record oil cuts as economy recovers from pandemic

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OPEC and allies such as Russia agreed on Wednesday to ease record oil supply curbs from August as the global economy slowly recovers from the coronavirus pandemic but said a second wave of the virus could complicate rebalancing in the market.

The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and its allies, known as OPEC+, have been cutting output since May by 9.7 million barrels per day, or 10% of global supply, after the virus destroyed a third of global demand.

From August, cuts will officially taper to 7.7 million bpd until December. However, Saudi Arabian Energy Minister Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman said the effective curbs would be deeper because countries which overproduced in May-June would make extra cuts in August and September to make up, so total cuts would end up amounting to about 8.1 million to 8.3 million bpd.

“As we move to the next phase of the agreement the extra supply resulting from the scheduled easing of production cuts will be consumed as demand continues on its recovery path,” Prince Abdulaziz after a meeting of a ministerial advisory panel to OPEC+, known as the JMMC.

He said Saudi oil exports in August would remain the same as in July because about 0.5 million bpd of extra barrels the kingdom was set to pump would be used domestically.

Oil prices have recovered to almost $43 a barrel from a 21-year low below $16 in April.

The recovery has allowed some U.S. producers to resume production. Russia and OPEC rely heavily on oil revenue but they will be keen not to push prices too high to give a further boost to rival U.S. oil output growth.

On Tuesday, OPEC said it saw demand recovering by 7 million bpd in 2021 after falling by 9 million this year.

However, fears of a second wave of coronavirus are weighing heavily on the market and OPEC+ said that “a second strong wave” could deepen the hit to demand to 11 million bpd this year.

Under such a negative scenario, OPEC would fail to address a huge global stocks overhang by the end of the year, it said.

Such a scenario could also put in jeopardy OPEC’s plans to supply an extra 6 million bpd of crude to the market next year.

“The expected forecast draws are at the mercy of the outcome of the COVID crisis and could be weighed down further by the prospect of Libya’s production coming back,” said Paola Rodriguez-Masiu from Rystad Energy.

Production from Libya, an OPEC member exempt from output cuts, has been hit because of the turmoil in the North African country, but the national oil company is working to pump more.

“The Americas region could throw a spanner in the rebalancing act as daily infections continue to rise and some states consider new restrictions,” Rodriguez-Masiu added.

It will be reminded that OPEC+ holds the JMMC meeting on August 18.

Gununu: “It’s time for Libyan Army to secure oil resources”

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Speaking to media, the spokesman for Libyan Army forces under the command of the Government of National Accord (GNA) Mohammed Gununu said Tuesday : “it’s time we have crushed the malicious hands toying with Libyan oil resources”.

Gununu added that oil must start pumping as usual once again and the presence of pro-Haftar mercenaries must be eliminated, saying Haftar had allowed the mercenaries to control Libyan soil and skies.

Latest update of COVID-19 infections in Libya

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The number of COVID-19 infections in Libya has risen to 1579, with 1163 active cases.

The National Center for Disease Control (NCDC) recorded 16 new cases on Tuesday, distributed as following:

  • Tripoli: 5 cases
  • Misrata: 1 case
  • Zliten: 4 cases
  • Al Jufra: 3 cases
  • Sabratah: 1 case
  • Tarhunah: 2 cases

NCDC also confirmed the recovery of 3patients, raising the number of recoveries to 373.

The death toll of Covid-19 has risen to 43 after the registration of 1 death in Misrata.

No photo description available.

It will be reminded that the National Center for Disease Control analyzed on Monday, July 13, 829 blood samples. The center confirmed that 778 samples have tested negative for Covid-19 and 51 samples tested positive.

Fahmi al-Maqouri: “Customs Department seized 300 companies and thousands of fictitious containers”

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During a televised interview for Libyan WTV channel and Tabadul Platform, the official spokesman for the customs authority, Fahmi al-Maqouri announced that during the past three years, the Customs Department has seized fake letters of credit of 300 companies and thousands of fictitious containers, during seizure operations that covered all the ports. He also clarified that all of the seized cases have been forwarded to the competent authorities.

As far as AKAKUS is concerned, al-Maqouri said the company was given letters of credit with the value of 2.300 million euros so as to import sheep. However, the company did not import anything. Instead,  the process was only limited to papers, procedures and documents.
“The case has been discovered by the Brigadier General Abdul Hakim Absa.” He added.

Abdul Hamid al-Fadhil: “dual exchange rate creates more corruption opportunities”

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During “Flusna”, a television programme broadcasted on WTV channel and Tabadul Platform, the economic expert Abdul Hamid al-Fadhil stressed that what is happening with corruption, currency smuggling and fictitious containers is due to the huge gap between the official exchange rate –plus the purchase fees –, and the exchange rate in the black market.

“According to the indicators, letters of credit have doubled compared to 2019,” he said, expressing surprise that letters of credit have been opened to basic commodities such as foodstuff, medicine as well as inputs, concluding that the figures remain larger than the average of 2019.

“These failed measures are creating a suitable environment for corruption. In other words, the existence of a dual exchange rate with a difference of about 40 % is like trying to create more corruption opportunities.”

He also called upon the authorities to eliminate the gap between the exchange rate in the black market and the official exchange rate, stressing that companies are committed to opening letters of credit compared to 2019.


Mohammed Al-Raied: “dual exchange rate devastates the Libyan economy”

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During a televised interview for Libyan WTV channel and Tabadul Platform, member of the House of Representatives (HoR), Mohammed Al-Raied, stressed that the reason for the economic devastation is the exchange rate, adding that the existence of two exchange rates has led to significant problems.

In order to eradicate corruption and guarantee the country’s stability, we must eliminate sources of corruption, chief among which is the exchange rate, the customs and taxes.

“After closing the letters of credit system, a great shock has affected the Libyan economy.” Said Al-Raied.

Al-Raied confirmed that there is a gap between the Presidential Council (PC) and the House of Representatives (HoR), calling on the Presidential Council and members of the House of Representatives to sit together so as to consult on the letters of credit system and change the 7 Positions of authority.

He also suggested to put pressure on the Presidential Council and the governor of the Central Bank in order to unify the exchange rate or to set up all purchase fees, including the government’s purchases.

First batch of stranded Libyans expected home

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The director of security of Ras Ijder border crossing with Tunisia, brigadier general Abu Rabi Makhlouf said that Libyans stranded in Tunisia started to enter the Libyan territories.

Makhlouf said that all technical measures were taken to ensure the safe and healthy return of those stranded, in coordination with the instructions set up by the Ministry of Interior to handle the Coronavirus pandemic.


US threatens sanctions in bid to restore oil sharing in Libya

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The US government raised the specter of sanctions on unspecified parties involved in Libya’s civil war yesterday after Libya’s oil authority accused the United Arab Emirates (UAE) of obstructing efforts to restore petroleum revenue sharing between the country’s warring sides, Al-Monitor stated.

Restarting the flow of oil and equitable revenue sharing would likely reduce the two sides’ dependence on foreign military support, which has escalated significantly over the past year, the source added.

Tarhuna: water supplies restored

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The Man-made River Authority has confirmed that water supplies have started flowing from the pumping station in Tarhuna, indicating that water will be restored to the water’s network at Tripoli by Monday evening.

On its Facebook page, the MMRA commended the efforts of the technician teams of the General Electricity Company of Libya (GECOL) who performed maintenance work and managed to restore the grid stability at the MMRA fields, “despite the technical difficulties facing the company.”