The Libyan Minister of Oil and Gas, Mohammed Oun, asked the Chairman of the National Oil Corporation (NOC), Farhat Bengdara, in a letter to stop the procedures for directly assigning the United Arab Emirates' (UAE) oil company "Esnad" for a contract rehabilitate and develop the Dahra fields, and to provide him with a detailed report on this matter within a week.
Oun said that the assignment of the Emirati company was “implicitly for the benefit of the American company Halliburton, the UAE branch,” and he vowed to take the necessary measures against the Chairman of the NOC and the American company if there was no response to his letter.
Among the measures that Oun brought up in his letter was “sending a notice to Halliburton warning it against participating in projects it knows in advance that their procedures conflict with Libyan and even American laws in the field of promoting the principles of transparency and fair competition,” as well as addressing partners in the fields of Al-Waha Oil Company (ConocoPhillips and Total Energy) for bearing responsibility in such procedures and the extent of their expected contribution to technical support and technology transfer in particular.
Oun described the procedures for assigning the Emirati company as “in violation of applicable legislation,” and said that assigning a newly established service company that has no experience at all in implementing such projects may raise questions about the possibility of corruption in the oil sector.
He attached to his letter a scanned copy of a correspondence between the Chairman of the Owners Committee and the Chairman of the Management Committee of Al-Waha Oil Company stating the approval to send eight employees, including four managers, to the UAE for a period of ten months to follow up on the project to rehabilitate and develop the Dahra fields.
He pointed out the presence of another team from Al-Waha Oil Company in the UAE, saying that they were also dispatched for a period of six months, accompanied by representatives of the Emirati Esnad Company. Oun considered these receipts as evidence of the transfer of the company and its management to Dubai.
Oun criticized Al-Waha Company for adopting the price list for the Emirati company’s services in a precedent that “has not happened before in the oil sector,” explaining that this list included services similar to Halliburton so that it could implement the project internally. He confirmed, after contacting officials of the American company, that it was not a partner for the Emirati Esnad company.
