Libya to move oil firm HQ to Benghazi
BENGHAZI, Libya: Libya plans to move the headquarters of its state oil firm to Benghazi, the city that started the uprising against Muammar Qaddafi and now wants greater influence, if a plan to restructure the corporation is approved by the national assembly.
Despite about 80 percent of Libya’s oil being located in the east, Qaddafi moved the state oil firm to the capital Tripoli and starved the eastern region of investment.
“The headquarters will be in Benghazi,” said deputy oil minister Omar Shakmak, referring to the terms of a new plan being finalized for approval by Libya’s highest political body.
Easterners have been calling for greater control over the country’s oil reserves — estimated to be the largest in Africa — since the uprising began in their region in early 2011.
At the start of the year, eastern workers and activists rejected a compromise by the government to move refining and petrochemicals to the east and even considered staging protests to threaten oil output.
Several assembly members told Reuters that easterners had since been promised the National Oil Corporation (NOC) headquarters would also move to Benghazi, but it was difficult to say when this would happen as they had not seen official paperwork yet.
“The prime minister then went to Benghazi and promised to move the NOC back to the city but no official resolution on this has been seen by the General National Congress (GNC) committee yet,” said a member of the assembly’s energy committee.
The wrangling over how to split the state oil firm has added to broader discontent in Benghazi over the prospect of further marginalization of the east by Tripoli and fueled calls for greater autonomy.
The NOC’s predecessor, the Libyan General Petroleum Company, was set up in Benghazi in 1968.
The NOC was established in 1970, a year after Qaddafi came to power, and relocated to Tripoli.
NOC Chairman Nuri Berruien said Prime Minister Ali Zeidan had promised to relocate the headquarters to Benghazi, but said it was a government issue.