The Libyan unity government headed by Abdel Hamid al-Dabaiba announced, on Wednesday, that it had appointed the prominent banker, Farhat bin Qadara, as head of the National Oil Corporation, to succeed Mustafa Sanalla, who was quick to reject the decision to dismiss him.
The decision, signed by Dabaiba on July 7, and published on Wednesday, stipulates the appointment of Ben Gudara as head of the Oil Corporation and four other people who are members of the Corporation’s board of directors.
The “Our Government” page of the Government of National Unity, in Posted on FacebookThursday, that “the Chairman of the Board of Directors of the National Oil Corporation, Farhat bin Qadara, arrived at the institution’s building to receive his duties.”
Sanalla quickly announced his rejection of the decision to dismiss him, considering that it was issued by an “expired” government.
Sanalla said in a statement that “the decision to form a new board of directors is legally void because it was issued by an expired government, and the institution is protected under international law that supports its unity and requests that it not be involved in politics.”
Dabaiba had announced at the end of last June that he had accepted the request of the Minister of Oil, Mohamed Aoun, to appoint a new board of directors for the Oil Corporation.
Aoun entered into disputes and exchanged accusations with Sanalla, accusing the latter of withholding revenue and production data from the ministry and of issuing orders to companies not to take into account the correspondences of the Ministry of Oil, to which the corporation legally belongs.
Sanalla has chaired the board of directors of the National Oil Corporation since 2014, and he held this position following holding several positions in national oil companies.
Sanalla has close relations with foreign oil companies operating in Libya.
The American ambassador comments
US Ambassador to Libya Richard Norland said he is “following with great concern developments surrounding the Libyan Oil Corporation, which is vital to Libya’s stability and prosperity.”
1/5 Ambassador Norland: “We are following with great concern the developments surrounding the National Oil Corporation, which is vital to the stability of the NOC #libya and prosperity, which remained politically independent and technically efficient under the leadership of Mustafa Sanalla. pic.twitter.com/pacROAnlLt
— U.S. Embassy – Libya (@USEmbassyLibya) July 14, 2022
Norland added, in publications of the US embassy in Libya on Twitter, that “the decision to replace the board of directors of the National Oil Corporation may be challenged in court, but it should not become the subject of an armed confrontation.”
Norland emphasized that “the institution remained politically independent and technically competent under the leadership of Mustafa Sanalla.”
Several Western countries have called for distancing the oil sector in Libya from conflicts and maintaining the stability of oil management, whose imports constitute more than 96 percent of Libya’s hard currency revenues.
Over the past years, Sanalla has entered into major disputes with successive governments, and is also at odds with “Seddik al-Kabeer”, the governor of the Central Bank of Libya, who accuses him of acting in an “unfair” manner with oil revenues and withholding the necessary budgets to support oil facilities.
As for Farhat Bin Qadara, 57, he is a banker whose origins are from Benghazi (east) and has held several positions in the field of banking, finance and business in Libya and abroad. The most prominent of these positions was his assumption of the position of Governor of the Central Bank between 2006 and 2011 during the era of the late leader Muammar Gaddafi.
Libya is facing a severe crisis due to the decline in oil production, and since April, local and tribal groups have closed six oil fields and ports in the east, in an area controlled by forces loyal to Field Marshal Khalifa Haftar.
These fields and ports are closed in protest once morest Abdel Hamid al-Dabaiba’s continued leadership of the government in Tripoli, and his failure to hand over power to the new government appointed by the House of Representatives.
Two weeks ago, the National Oil Corporation announced that the size of the financial losses resulting from the closure of oil facilities in the east exceeded 3.5 billion dollars.
The division in Libya is exacerbated by the presence of two competing governments, the first in Tripoli that emerged from a political agreement a year and a half ago, headed by Abdel Hamid al-Dabaiba, who refuses to hand over power except to an elected government, and the second, headed by Fathi Pashaga, appointed by Parliament in February and given its confidence in March and taken from Sirte (Central ) as a temporary headquarters following it was prevented from entering Tripoli, despite its attempt to do so.
