Mustafa Sanalla confirmed in a phone call to the British news agency, Reuters, today Thursday, that executives and companies affiliated with the Libyan National Oil Corporation still recognize him as president, after the Tripoli-based government said it had replaced him and appointed a new head at the corporation’s headquarters, adding that he is still in Tripoli and working on what he called “mitigation” efforts to resolve the crisis, without clarifying what it is.
Sanalla considered that without international pressure, the crisis could lead to the emergence of a parallel national oil corporation, as happened during the last civil war in the country when competing administrations ruled in the east and west, noting that “it is expected that there is no commitment like the previous one from the international community”.
Prime Minister Abdul Hamid Dbeibeh’s decision, on Tuesday, to replace Sanalla has exacerbated the political crisis in Libya and threatens to push the National Oil Corporation into the factional infighting that was mostly avoided during the years of conflict.
Reuters said that a new chairman of the National Oil Corporation, appointed by Dbeibeh, Farhat Ben Gdara, was installed at the corporation’s headquarters on Thursday, after an armed force deployed around the building.
Sanalla said that Dbeibeh did not have the authority to dismiss him because the term of the National Unity Government had expired. Dbeibeh rejected this, saying that his term will not end until elections.
Sanalla acknowledged transferring NOC revenues to the central bank earlier this year for use by Dbeibeh’s government — his critics say this fact shows his recognition of Dabaiba as prime minister.
The newspaper also said that UN Security Council resolutions recognize the National Oil Corporation as the only legitimate producer of Libyan crude, and during the last round of conflict the international community stopped the parallel branch of the National Oil Corporation established by the eastern government from selling crude oil.