Libya’s National Oil Corporation has notified the Presidency Council of an attempt by the parallel administration in Beyda to export oil illicitly from Libya and to circumvent its legitimate monopoly on oil exports.
NOC chairman Mustafa Sanalla said,
“Agoco, our subsidiary in the east, was instructed yesterdayby a Beyda official to load a ship at Marsa el-Hariga.I notified Prime Minister Serraj and the Presidency Council, who understood immediately the seriousness of the issue and took the necessary steps to stop the vessel from loading.Agoco employees and port officials understood this was a political attempt to divide the country, and I am very proud that they resisted the pressure to load this vessel.This had the potential to be a very ugly incident and I am pleased that it has been resolved peacefully without injury to anybody or loss of revenue or damage to the integrity of NOC or the country.”
A document sent by Almabruk Sultan, appointed international marketing manager of NOC by the parallel administration, instructed Agoco to load 650,000 barrels of oil on April 21-23 at Marsa el-Hariga for DSA Consultancy FZC, a company registered in Sharjah, United Arab Emirates. The vessel in question, Distya Ameya, is Indian flagged.Through the Libyan mission to the United Nations, the Presidency Council notified the UN Security Council’s Libya sanctions committee that the attempted export breached UNSC resolution 2278.The vessel arrived at Marsa al-Hariga last night at 0130 but was not cleared to load and remains at anchor.
“We have been in communication with the master of the ship.We have informed him he is breaching UN resolutions and we have asked him to leave Libyan waters immediately. He has turned off his vessel’s tracking system.”said Sanalla.
The fixing of the Distya Ameya is the culmination of a long campaign by DSA Consultancy to illicitly load Libyan oil, and follows several frustrated attempts by the UAE company to charter vessels under contract with the parallel administration.
“There is only one National Oil Corporation. DSA Consultancy has no relationship with it, and has no legal contract to buy Libyan oil.The crude oil DSA intended to load was already committed to other buyers. I hope this has been an expensive lesson to them and others.”Sanalla ended.
Source:NOC
