By Sami Zaptia.
Tripoli, 11 April 2013:
Libya’s National Oil Corporation (NOC) head Nuri Berruien has stressed that Libya will not allow any . . .[restrict]foreign security in its oil sector.
At a meeting with senior executives from BP and Oil Minister Abdelbari Arusi this week, the NOC chairman was adamant that foreign security personnel would not be allowed to take part in securing the oil sector.
According to a statement on the Arabic version of its web site, NOC said that the issue of providing full security in BP’s sites was discussed. It was not made clear which side raised the security issue or whether BP had suggested the use of foreign security personnel, private or otherwise.
Arusi for his part pointed out that the security situation “continued to improve”, despite what he characterised as the “exaggeration” of the security situation in Libya by some media.
In turn, the BP team said that a delegation from the company would visit Libya next week to review the security situation closely and to meet officials from the NOC.
BP said in January, in the wake of the In Amenas attack in Algeria, that it was reconsidering its plans to return to full operations in Libya this autumn. In May last year, just a day after its rival Shell revealed that it was suspending its operations in Libya, BP announced that it was coming back to work in Libya. [/restrict]
