July 14 (EUROPA PRESS) –
The Libyan unity government has appointed Farhat ben Gadara on Thursday as the new president of the Libyan state oil company, the National Oil Corporation (NOC), in the context of the serious political and economic crisis in the African country.
Ben Gadara has assumed his powers during a press conference at the NOC headquarters and has thanked the Unity Executive for the appointment of a new board of directors, according to the Libyan news portal EAN.
“We guarantee all foreign partners that all the commitments and agreements signed will be preserved and we will seek to develop them under the supervision of the Government,” he explained, before promising to work to reactivate exports from the closed ports.
The until now head of the NOC, Mustafá Sanalá, announced on Wednesday the end of the state of force majeure in the ports of Brega and Zueituna after “long” negotiations to allow the arrival of the oil tanker ‘Ebla’ to the area for loading tasks .
Sanalá said in a statement published on the NOC website that “it has been agreed that the tanker will enter upon arrival and start sending the condensate from the ports of Brega and Zuetina.”
“A team of specialists from the NOC and its subsidiaries are conducting negotiations for the tanker acceptance agreement and asking the ports of Sidra and Zueitina to start restarting production in the fields of the Waha and Melita companies to try to alleviate the crisis,” he said.
Likewise, he confirmed that “during the last few days” there have been contacts with the Petroleum Installations Guard and with the president of the Energy Committee of the House of Representatives, contacts that resulted in “the conviction of the importance of exporting the condensate to solve gas shortage in the eastern region”.
Sanalá also stressed that the authorities and the NOC “will continue to fulfill their responsibilities and maintain the regular flow of oil to global markets.” “Companies have been instructed to gradually increase oil and natural gas production capacity,” he stressed.
The country is again divided into two administrations after the House of Representatives terminated the mandate of the prime minister of unity, Abdul Hamid Dbeibé, due to the postponement of the presidential elections of December 2021 and appointed Fazi Bashaga to the position.
Dbeibé was elected as prime minister by the Libyan Political Dialogue Forum (LPDF) in February 2021, thereby replacing the then unity prime minister, Fayez Serraj, who agreed to cede his powers after the consultation process, initiated after a ceasefire agreement after the Tripoli authorities rejected the military offensive launched in April 2019 by General Khalifa Haftar, aligned with the authorities based in the east.
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