On Sunday, the Prime Minister of the Government of National Accord (GNA), Fayez Al-Sarraj, received the Italian ambassador Giuseppe Puccini, the EU ambassador to Libya José Antonio Sabadell, and the Algerian ambassador Abdelkader Hijazi. The parties discussed the security, economic and political tracks for solving the Libyan crisis in accordance with the Berlin Conference’s outcomes.
During the meeting, Al-Sarraj and the newly appointed ambassadors stressed the critical importance of resuming oil production and exports in all fields and ports.
They also stressed the necessity of ensuring the re-opening of all oilfields and end the state of force majeure imposed by the National Oil Corporation (NOC), which has caused severe suffering for Libyans in all regions.
On Sunday, Libya’s NOC announced that it was resuming production at the country’s largest oil field as opposing parties from eastern and western Libya began peace talks, which are part of preliminary negotiations ahead of a UN-brokered dialogue set to take place next month.
The NOC said it lifted the force majeure imposed at the southwestern Sharara oil field after it reached “an honour agreement” with forces loyal to military commander Khalifa Haftar to end “all obstructions” at the field.
The NOC’s announcement comes three weeks after Libyan National Army leader Khalifa Haftar announced an end to the oil blockade.
The 18 September breakthrough was the result of a so-called “Libyan-Libyan dialogue” led by Ahmed Maiteeq, who is the Tripoli-based GNA Deputy Prime Minister. This breakthrough seeks to create a new mechanism to distribute the country’s petrodollars more equitably across all its regions.
Libya’s oil production had reached at least 1.2 million barrels a day before powerful eastern tribes loyal to Haftar seized control of the oil facilities in January, including the Sharara field, to protest what they said was the inequitable distribution of oil revenues across Libya.