By Sami Zaptia.
London, 26 April 2017:
The chairman of the National Oil Corporation, Mustafa Sanalla, met yesterday with the Libyan Council for Oil and Gas (LCOG), the lobbying group representing 22 Libyan private sector oil and gas companies.
In the three-hour meeting, the LCOG, led by its chairman Khaled Ben Othman, called on the NOC to ‘‘put the (Libyan) private sector at the heart of projects serving the Libyan economy and contributing in the economic development in the absence of foreign companies’’.
The meeting reviewed the current status of and challenges to the private sector in the oil and gas sector. The LCOG called for the activation of previous decrees stating that small and medium – as well as some large – scale projects must be offered and priority must be given to local companies. Foreign companies should also be obliged to work with Libyan companies.
The LCOG also called for the import and supply of spare parts (a relatively low tech sector) to be restricted to the Libyan private sector as a means to developing the local private sector economy. Finally, the LCOG called for inspection and quality control work in the sector to be carried out by Libyan companies.
The LCOG reported that the NOC ‘‘undertook to standby and give total and unlimited support for local (Libyan) companies in implementing oil sector projects and in partnering foreign companies’’ working in the Libyan oil sector.
The meeting was also attended by the heads of NOC subsidiaries Mellitah, Akakus, Waha, Harouge, Brega and Zueitina.
