Libya: oil and gas ministry to be reorganised pending December election

A picture taken on September 24, 2020 shows the Brega oil port in Marsa Brega, some 270kms west of Libya’s eastern city of Benghazi [AFP via Getty Images]

Libya’s oil and gas ministry is to be reorganised pending the election in December, the prime minister’s office has announced. According to Bloomberg, one representative from western Libya will be in charge of the ministry.

Prime Minister-designate Abdul Hamid Mohamed Dbeibeh presented his plan to parliament and said that the head of the National Oil Corporation (NOC) and the governor of the central bank will both be from the eastern region.

Dbeibeh was chosen as interim prime minister by Libyan delegates at a political forum in Geneva in February.

READ: Libya accuses Arab League of double standards

Many oil fields and installations in Libya have been besieged by militias loyal to Field Marshal Khalifa Haftar, supported by Russia and the United Arab Emirates. Haftar announced an end to such sieges last September.

According to the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), during the sieges, Libya’s oil production fell to less than 100,000 barrels per day. However, the NOC has managed to increase production since the lifting of the sieges to 1.2 million barrels per day, which was the rate of production prior to January 2020.

Libya has been a member of OPEC since 1962.

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