Sanallah: Keep NOC out of the war

An article in the Petroleum Economist discusses the likelihood that rival factions in Libya may soon commence a war over control of the country's oil fields.

National Oil Company’s (NOC) chairman [Mustafa Sanallah] fears that rival factions are poised for a major new oil war for control of central oilfields, and warned the country’s politicians that unless they move fast the conflict could engulf the industry, killing off chances for a production revival and worsening the economy. “The war now is about who is governing the oil,” Mustafa Sanallah said in an interview with Petroleum Economist. “The civil war is guided by the war for the oil. Everyone wants to govern the oil.”

Many previous efforts to form a true unity government, which might be able to prevent such a war, have failed. Nonetheless,

Sanallah said he planned soon to “to bring all tribes, municipalities, leaders of militias and maybe also invite some people from the PC [Presidency Council], some from the UN” to establish a new national accord, based on preserving the oil sector. “Maybe in a few weeks you will see something like this.”

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