Libya's National Oil Corporation (NOC) will focus on raising its output and transparency, new acting chairman Massoud Suleiman told Reuters, adding that the NOC has a strategic plan to increase production that we will continue to implement and make any adjustments to, whenever necessary."
Suleiman said in response to emailed questions from Reuters that the NOC was producing about 1.4 million barrels of oil per day (bpd) at the end of 2024, according to the company, while the country's longer-term target is 2 million bpd.
Suleiman also said he would focus on boosting NOC's transparency which could involve streamlining some operations, including possible office closures.
NOC fully owns 15 subsidiaries, according to its website, in addition to stakes in joint ventures and other companies it oversees.
"I will focus above all on cementing transparency inside the National Oil Corporation so that any investor, whether the Libyan state or our foreign partners, can have a high level of confidence that any money injected into the NOC will be used in the best possible way," Suleiman said.
"I am still working on forming a complete picture of what has been done in some companies, such as the Mediterranean Oil Services Company," Suleiman added, referring to NOC's arm which procures equipment and other services for oilfield operations.
"I will likely move cautiously towards evaluating some branches and closing some of them... especially some of the newly established branches."
Mediterranean Oil Services has offices in Dusseldorf, Germany, and since 2020 in Dubai. Libyan media reported that it opened an office in Istanbul last year. Closing some offices could "make the administrative structure of the corporation simpler and easier to manage in the future," Suleiman said.
