By Sami Zaptia.
London, 4 August 2016:
The Audit Bureau held a series of meetings last Wednesday with the National Oil Corporation (NOC) and Mayors of the southern region in an effort to loosen bottlenecks to oil production and power production, respectively.
In its meeting with the NOC chairman, management and the NOC’s subsidiaries, the various blockages and impediments to increasing Libya’s oil production were discussed.
The Audit Bureau said that these increased oil revenues are needed in order to maintain the oil facilities that have been neglected due to cash flow problems the Libyan state has faced since the 2011 revolution.
The subsequent revenues from increased oil production would then help alleviate the burden being suffered by the Libyan citizen.
During its meeting with Mayors from the southern region of Libya, the Audit Bureau reported that it had discussed effective means of cooperation in solving the obstacles to the completion of the Ubari power station.
This came as part of the initiative by the Audit Bureau to solve the various existing obstacles to the return to Libya of the implementing foreign companies of the Ubari electricity station. The Audit Bureau reported that it had discussed various means in which Mayors could provide logistical and security support for foreign engineers and workers working on the power station.
These discussions came as a result of previous discussions held with both the foreign implementing companies and the General Electricity Company of Libya (GECOL), the Audit Bureau reported.
Libya has been going through a series of acute political and economic crises both as a result of decreased oil production but also as a result of a battle over the control over the rentier state’s oil revenues.
It will be noted that the Tripoli-based Audit Bureau has, in the absence of strong legislatures and executives in Libya during the country’s polarized political division, has taken a very proactive role sometimes beyond its monitoring and oversight role.
