The head of the National Oil Corporation, Mustafa Sanallah, said Thursday that the ongoing conflict over oil facilities is more of an international political conflict than an internal Libyan dispute over revenue distribution.
Sanallah added during the Middle East Summit, with the participation of Total executive manager Patrick Pouyanné, that there are several countries that benefit financially from the absence of Libyan oil on the global market, and it is appropriate for them to move Libyan dolls with the support of foreign mercenaries to actually implement the closures, as he put it.
Sanalla affirmed that the Libyan citizens are most affected by the closures imposed in the eastern region, and the biggest evidence is the deterioration of the service side, the continued lack of cash and other problems that the citizens suffer daily, indicating that they need international help if oil exports resume and that there is no reason , that prevents them from increasing production to more than 2 million barrels per day within a few years after resumption.
In the same context, Pouyanné expressed his concern about the military presence around the oil installations, especially if fighting occurred, which would lead to a major disaster with heavy losses of civilian lives, stressing the need to allow the corporation to resume production as a first step towards launching a political dialogue.
It is worth noting that the National Corporation confirmed, last July, that the UAE had given instructions to Haftar’s militias to stop oil production, stating that it was forced to declare force majeure on all oil exports from Libya in order to reduce its contractual obligations.