By Sami Zaptia.
London, 7 November 2020:
Libya’s state National Oil Corporation (NOC) reported yesterday that total oil revenues for September and October this year totalled US$ 347 million.
It explained that there were US$ 116.9 million registered as September oil revenues which amounted to a significant decline compared to the revenues for September 2019, which amounted to $ 1.7 billion, as crude oil sales had recorded $ 83.9 million for the year.
It is noted that revenues for the month of September reflect August sales during which Libyan oil ports were suffering forced closures.
The NOC revealed that oil revenues recorded a slight increase during October, after the status of Force Majeure was lifted at the ports of Al-Hariga and Brega where exports began from Thursday, 24 September, and then at intervals to the rest of the oil fields and ports, during which the stored quantities were loaded, which the NOC said explains record revenues during October.
October’s revenues were 230.2 million US dollars, compared to 2 billion US dollars in October 2019, as the established crude oil sales recorded 179.9 million US dollars, 42.1 million US dollars from gas and condensate sales, and 8.1 million US dollars from product sales.
The NOC reiterated its full commitment to the ‘‘highest standards of transparency’’ in all its business operations. To guarantee such transparency, it added that publishes all monthly data related to oil revenues, as it has done since January 2018.
It said it will continue to rigorously fulfil its commitments to provide Libyan authorities and the public with ‘‘a thorough and complete accounting of all revenues and deposits’’.
It added that at the direction of relevant Libyan authorities and consistent with its domestic and international legal obligations, the NOC deposits all such revenues in its account at the Libyan Foreign Bank.
The NOC stressed that ‘‘issues related to the budget process and ultimate management of Libya’s finances are political matters that are outside the NOC’s mandate, and the NOC, as a technical and apolitical institution, will discharge its responsibilities at the direction of executive authorities’’.
In this regards, NOC chairman Mustafa Sanallah, said, “We have started actual and serious work and we expect a significant increase in revenues during the months of November and December. And this is a result of the gradual return to natural production and reaching the desired rates, but we are facing a challenge represented in the scarcity of the budget allocated to the sector. Which undoubtedly affects the maintenance of regular production hopes’’.
