On Saturday, the Libyan House of Representatives (HoR) Energy and Natural Resources Committee warned against changing the Board of Directors of the National Oil Corporation (NOC) and obstructing its work. In a statement published on the Parliament’s website, the committee called for “neutralising” the NOC against political strife and distancing it from conflicts.
The statement came a day after the outgoing Libyan Prime Minister of the Government of National Unity (GNU), Abdelhamid Al-Dbaiba, said he accepts the proposal of Oil Minister, Mohamed Aoun, to change the NOC’s Board of Directors, led by Mustafa Sanalla.
Al-Dbaiba asked Aoun to nominate candidates to study their CVs and consider their qualifications to replace Sanalla.
The Libyan Parliament’s Energy Committee explained in a statement that the Al-Dbaiba government “has no legal legitimacy and no right to take such decisions since the withdrawal of confidence from it in September 2021.”
The Libyan committee warned of the negative impact of this decision on “the continued flow of oil, the production and the interests of the state, especially during the current political division.”
It stressed that it will not recognise any “improvised decisions,” calling on the NOC’s Board of Directors to take the necessary measures to move the institution’s headquarters from Tripoli to in Benghazi.
Aoun was speaking on Thursday at a Cabinet meeting of the GNU, which is based in Tripoli. He said it was unacceptable that he not know the accurate figures before next week’s Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) meeting.
The Minister added that the NOC’s Head, Sanalla, was withholding production data from him, raising doubts over the figures he issued last week.
He noted that Sanalla violated the laws and legislation regulating the oil sector, and the technical foundations in managing the fields’ reservoirs. This led to disasters, heavy losses, and technical problems that have negative effects on the performance of the sector and surface equipment.