Petroleum Africa
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Friday, August 28, 2020
Within the framework of the Middle East Mediterranean Summit, National Oil Corporation (NOC) chairman Eng. Mustafa Sanalla and Mr Patrick Pouyanné Total Chief Executive Officer participated On Tuesday, August 25, 2020, in a panel discussion on the latest developments of the situation in Libya, following the escalation of tension and conflicts and the collapse of the oil.
During his speech, Mr Sanalla stressed that the ongoing conflict on oil facilities is an international political conflict rather than an internal Libyan dispute over the distribution of revenues. A number of countries benefit financially from the absence of the Libyan oil from the global market but it suits them to use Libyan puppets, supported by foreign mercenaries, to actually implement the blockade. The vast majority of Libyans themselves want to see a resumption of oil production, accompanied by genuine transparency on all sides on revenues and spending.
He also stressed that the Libyan citizen was the most affected by the illegal blockades in the eastern and central region since January, and the biggest evidence of this is the deterioration of the service side, the continued lack of liquidity and many other problems that the Libyan citizen suffers from on a daily basis.
Mr Pouyanné praised NOC’s positive role and its efforts to ensure continued production and export of oil and gas despite the ongoing wars in Libya.
He also expressed his concern about the military presence around oil facilities and ports, especially in the event that fighting erupts between the conflicting parties there, which could produce a major disaster with significant civilian loss of life. He stressed the need for all sides to abstain from fighting and to allow NOC to resume production as a first step towards launching a political dialogue.
At the end, Eng. Mustafa Sanalla said: “We, at NOC, are doing everything we can within the limits of the law to lift the blockade and facilitate the resumption of oil exports. We will then have a lot of work to do to repair damaged facilities. We will need international help. Still, we have good partners, and if the appropriate security conditions are provided, there would be no reason to prevent us from increasing production to more than 2 million bpd within a few years.”
The panel discussion was attended by Mr Giampiero Massolo, President of the Italian Institute for International Political Studies, Ms Claudia Sosai, civic activist and Mr. Luca Fasani, journalist.
The summit brought together 100 leaders and influencers from North Africa, the Middle East and Europe to deal with the challenges the region is going through and discuss possible solutions to those challenges.
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