The Public Services Committee of the High Council of State (HCS) held a meeting with the Minister of Oil and Gas, Mohammed Oun, and a group of experts in the field of oil, in the presence of a number of heads of the HCS permanent committees discussed the Hamada Al-Hamra field investment agreement with a consortium of companies that includes the Italian Eni, the Emirati ADNOC, and the French Total.
The HCS said in a statement on Facebook that they "agreed to address the HCS Presidency Office and inform it of the necessity of sending a letter to the Government of National Unity to alert it of the consequences of signing this agreement."
The agreement to develop the Hamada field, which the National Oil Corporation intends to sign in late January, sparked widespread controversy within Libya, and local opposition to the agreement, especially from a number of national experts, the House of Representatives, the Public Prosecution, and the Audit Bureau.
The House of Representatives warned the concerned countries against involvement in exploiting the circumstances that Libya is going through to "plunder its wealth for the sake of corrupt deals or causing serious harm to the country and its economy," accusing the Government of National Unity of “giving up approximately 40% of the field’s production in favor of a consortium of foreign companies.”
The Ministry of Oil and Gas called on the decision-makers to reconsider the negotiations paving the way for signing the contract for the development of the Hamada oil field located south of Tripoli, and to work with the directives of the regulatory and judicial authorities, asking them to take into account the technical opinion provided by the Ministry in this regard.
The Public Prosecution asked the Chairman of the National Oil Corporation, Farhat Bengdara, to stop negotiations for the signing of the contract for the development of the Hamada oilfield until a decisive judicial decision is issued to ensure regularity of contracting procedures.
The Audit Bureau recommended to the Government of National Unity that the procedures for signing the Hamada field development agreement be halted until the Bureau completes the follow-up work, reviews the studies and technical reports, and verifies the validity and safety of the procedures undertaken by the National Oil Corporation regarding this project.
