Page 8 - AfrOil Week 43 2021

AfrOil POLICY AfrOil

Libyan oil minister tries again

to suspend NOC chairman

LIBYA LIBYAN Oil Minister Mohammed Oun has the legal authority to appoint a new leader for
suspended Mustafa Sanalla from his position the national oil concern. His remarks were in
as chairman of state-run National Oil Corp. keeping with Libya’s long-standing practice of
(NOC) for the second time. treating the position of NOC chairman as a sov-
Oun issued an order for Sanalla’s suspension ereign post that requires the approval of other
on October 20, according to a ministry state- political bodies, such as Parliament. Oun, how-
ment. He announced the move two days after ever, has insisted that his ministry has jurisdic-
Libya’s Deputy Prime Minister Hussein Al-Got- tion over the choice of a chairman.
rani directed the NOC chairman not to negoti- Libya’s Prime Minister Abdul Hamid Dbei-
ate oil and gas deals with any third party without bah attempted to settle the dispute in mid-Sep-
reporting to him first. tember by issuing a decree stating that Sanalla
In its statement, the Oil Ministry reported would continue to act as the head of NOC. The
that Sanalla had been penalised for non-com- company responded by hailing the decision,
pliance with standard procedures for obtaining saying in a statement dated September 20 that
advance authorisation for undertaking official it was prepared to move forward and pursue
missions and for failing to transfer certain func- co-operation with the Oil Ministry in order to
tions of the company over to the government’s serve the national interest.
control. Additionally, it said that the NOC head Sanalla has served as chairman of NOC since
had been referred to an administrative investi- 2014 and has tried to keep the company from
gation and would remain on leave pending the becoming entangled in the political disputes
outcome of the probe. that arose during Libya’s long civil war. Oun,
As of press time, Sanalla had not commented meanwhile, took the helm of the newly recon-
on the matter. stituted Oil Ministry in March of this year as
This is not the NOC chairman’s first run-in a member of the country’s interim unity gov-
with Oun. He was suspended from his post ernment. Since then, he has sought to expand
by the Oil Ministry on similar grounds in late the ministry’s jurisdiction over the oil and gas
August. industry. ™
Oun announced the first suspension in a
letter that faulted the NOC chief for leaving
the country without first obtaining permis-
sion from his ministry. He claimed that Sanalla
had violated Oil Ministry policy and was not
authorised to act as the head of NOC while trav-
elling abroad. Additionally, he named Jadallah
al-Awkali, a member of NOC’s board of direc-
tors, as interim chairman.
Sanalla responded by rejecting Oun’s deci-
sion, saying that the minister had not been given Sanalla has headed NOC since 2014 (File Photo)

Spanish gas importers see Algerian gas

shipments via GME stopping November 1

ALGERIA/MOROCCO SPANISH gas importers are reportedly expect- Algeria’s decision not to renew its 25-year transit
ing Algeria to stop delivering natural gas via the agreement with neighbouring Morocco, which
Gaz-Maghreb-Europe (GME) pipeline by the is due to expire on October 31. As such, they
beginning of November. have placed no orders (also known as “nomina-
According to data published last week by tions”) to reserve capacity in the GME pipeline
Enagas (Spain), gas importers have taken note of after November 1.

P8 www. NEWSBASE .com Week 43 27•October•2021