Libya: the prosecutor orders the arrest of the Oil Minister for corruption
A day after Libya was forced, once again, to reduce oil production from its largest field, Sharara, due to protests, the Libyan Prosecutor's Office in Tripoli ordered the arrest of the country's oil minister. on charges of corruption, as reported by Libyan media.
An arrest warrant was issued for Oil Minister Khalifa Abdul-Sadiq on Wednesday on charges of corruption in relation to 600,000 euros used "for the benefit of a foreign company", the Libya Observer reported, citing the order of arrest.
The position of oil minister in Libya has been the subject of controversy for months and, for all intents and purposes, Libya has had a dueling oil minister since March.
That month, then-Oil Minister Mohamed Oun was suspended pending an investigation and temporarily replaced by Abdul-Sadiq. In May, Oun was cleared, the investigation concluded, and he was officially deemed able to retain his position as oil minister. However, at the time, Prime Minister Abdul Hamid Dbeibeh, head of the Libyan government in Tripoli, reportedly ordered Abdul-Sadiq to refuse to hand power back to Oun, leaving the country essentially with two oil ministers working in opposite ways .
This week, an arrest warrant was issued for Abdul-Sadiq, while Oun remained on the sidelines after asking in early July for clarification on who the oil minister actually is. At the time, Oun said he wanted to voluntarily suspend himself from office until he received clarification. So the country went from having two Oil Ministers to probably having none.
Now, with Abdul-Sadiq under arrest, it is unclear whether the country still has an oil minister and whether Oun will also be replaced.
Meanwhile, reports are coming from Libya that the protests that have once again caused a partial blockade of Libya's Sharara oil field may not be random, but politically organized.
The Libya Observer speculated that General Khalifa Haftar, behind rival government forces in the east of the country, may have orchestrated the protests and forced the shutdown in retaliation for his brief detention by Italian authorities in Rome a few days ago. for a Spanish arrest warrant related to weapons smuggling charges. The Spanish oil and gas company Repsol is one of the partners of Sharara's JV, so Haftar managed to kill two birds with one stone: take revenge on the Spaniards and put the opposing government in Tripoli in difficulty
Sharara was pumping 200,000 bpd, down from 270,000 bpd, Libyan media reported Wednesday. The field has a capacity of 300,000 bpd.
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The article Libya: the prosecutor orders the arrest of the Oil Minister for corruption comes from Scenari Economici .
This is a machine translation of a post published on Scenari Economici at the URL https://scenarieconomici.it/libia-la-procura-ordina-larresto-del-ministro-del-petrolio-per-corruzione/ on Fri, 09 Aug 2024 06:00:01 +0000.