On Thursday, Sada economic newspaper circulated a leaked letter sent by the Governor of the Central Bank of Libya (CBL), Sadiq Al-Kabir, to the Chairman of the National Oil Corporation (NOC), Mustafa Sanalla, about the NOC’s statement regarding oil revenues.
According to the letter published by the Sada economic newspaper, Al-Kabir stated that the volume of oil revenues supplied to the CBL during October to mid-November amounted to about $15 million despite the NOC’s announcement that production had reached 1.2 million bpd.
He added that this came at a time when the Libyan state was in dire need of foreign cash to meet the demand for “documentary credits, direct transfers, and household goods, as well as affecting the exchange rate and providing liquidity”.
According to the document, the auditing work shows that the NOC did not announce part of the oil revenues to the public treasury, amounting to about $3.2 billion. He noted that this amount, if added to the accounts, could be used to cover the foreign exchange requests.
“Although the CBL welcomed the return of oil production and exports, the bank was surprised by the NOC’s withholding of revenues from state accounts”, Al-Kabir said, adding that the CBL was sufficiently able to manage the state’s foreign exchange reserves, as well as oil and gas revenues.
