Tripoli, 25 July:
Employees of Mellitah Oil & Gas staged a protest on Tuesday at the company’s headquarters in Tripoli. They were . . .[restrict]demanding the management committee in charge of running the company’s affairs be replaced. The protest was also pointedly targeted at the foreign partner in the company, Italian state oil and gas giant Eni.
Mellitah is a joint venture formed in 2008 between Eni and Libya’s National Oil Company (NOC).
According to Tripoli-based Tadamon press, the protestors accused the company of weak performance, especially in its dealings with Eni. They expressed dissatisfaction at what they described as the Italian partner’s direct intervention in determining production policies. They claimed that was one of the NOC’s principle responsibilities.
They also expressed their opposition to abuses they said were being carried out by the company’s management committee, in particular the way in which it paid contractors without the knowledge or approval of the ownership committee. This was said to be in violation of the company’s regulations.
In a statement, the protestors claimed that the management committee had pursued unfair policies, appointing some individuals to leading positions without taking into consideration its own standards of competence and qualifications.
According to Tadamon a detailed list of all the demands was sent to the Oil Minister, Abdulrahman Ben Yazza, and the NOC chairman Nuri Berrouien. [/restrict]
