The Libyan Minister of Oil and Gas Mohammed Oun said that international companies operating in the oil sector took advantage of the political situation in the country and the government division to change contracts to achieve the greatest benefit from Libyan wealth.
Oun added in an interview with Attaqa energy news website that companies such as “Total Energy of France” and “ConocoPhillips of the US” applied to amend the terms of the agreements with the Libyan state, on the basis that they would develop oil discoveries, but that did not happen.
He explained that ConocoPhillips had agreed to this development since 2006, and so far it has not been developed, while Total obtained a large oil share in 2019, and pledged at that time to develop the discoveries managed by the Libyan Waha Company, but this did not happen either.
Oun described these practices as companies exploiting the political situation in the country, and taking advantage of the weakness of the Libyan state at the present time to achieve the greatest possible benefits. He confirmed that he objected to the terms of contracts with these companies because the Libyan institutions had succeeded, since 2007 and 2008, in developing a vision and foundations for the issue of contracts and had completed distinguished contracts since that date, while Italian and European companies were part of them, but the issue was different after 2011.
Oun indicated that the companies had increased in the last period in their share of oil, and did not fulfill their pledges to develop the sites discovered since the 1970s, that is, more than 30 years ago. He pointed out that it was supposed to develop these sites or return them to the National Oil Corporation, but this did not happen.
He also explained that he objected to raising the value of the share granted to the Italian company Eni in the Hamada field because it is not losing economically as it claims. He added that the country needs at least five years of work to reach the production of two million barrels per day.
