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Sunday, December 27, 2015
While both governments of Libya, the official located in Tobruk and the unofficial in Tripoli, have their own NOCs it is the unofficial government in Tripoli whose state-run firm is receiving praise from international firms as being a good fit for the ‘about to be formed’ unity government. Firms like ENI, Vitol Group, Litasco SA (a Lukoil unit), and Glencore have all declared support for the NOC in the West.
Near the end of November Litasco SA and Vitol Group declared their support for Libya’s Tripoli-based National Oil Corp., a Bloomberg report revealed. The “NOC, based at its legal address in Tripoli, has served Libya well by staying independent,” Vitol CEO Ian Taylor said at the time. “We are confident it will continue to do so.”
More recently Italy’s ENI, Libya’s largest producer, less than a week after the two governments signed political agreements for forming a unity government said that it welcomed the state oil company’s role in national unity. NOC in the West has been recognized as the main player in the Libyan oil sector and served as the country’s main source for energy dialogue during the long period of division according to ENI.
ENI’s CEO Claudio Descalzi hosted Mustafa Sanalla, chairman of the Tripoli-based NOC in Rome. Descalzi said the focus of the meeting was on the future potential for the Libyan oil sector. In a statement after the meeting Descalzi said: “It succeeded in supporting and developing the energy sector in Libya in a very difficult period,” he said in a statement. “For this reason, we want to recognize the professionalism and operational commitment and sacrifice that the NOC was able to exhibit during the recent complex and profound transformation of the country.”
What this means for these companies if a unity government is formed is not clear. If the unity government sticks with the Tripoli NOC expect things to continue on their current course, if the Tobruk NOC is the company of choice for the unity government there could be some problems for those companies that chose to deal with the Tripoli NOC. Although given the state of the country’s petroleum sector, that is unlikely.
Libya will need all the support it can get from foreign operators in every area of the petroleum spectrum – trading, downstream, and upstream.
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