The Acting Chairman of the National Oil Corporation (NOC), Masoud Suleiman, indicated that the payment mechanism for the partners of Al-Waha and Eni for gas supplies will be stopped, and the exchange of crude oil for fuel will also be halted on the first of next March.
Suleiman said in a letter to the Minister of State for Cabinet Affairs that the NOC would be exempt from responsibility in the event of a return of the phenomenon of congestion or any power outages and other vital facilities due to the shortage of financial balances with the failure or disruption of payment in the event that the fuel account is not recharged.
Suleiman added that he had obtained verbal approval from the Audit Bureau to continue working on the exchange system to meet the needs of the market during February until the Central Bank completes its readiness to provide the budgets allocated for fuel.
The Central Bank of Libya’s Governor, the heads of the Audit Bureau and the National Oil Corporation agreed on the NOC’s commitment to transferring revenues to the Central Bank on time and regularly, to ensure the stability of financial flows.
Meanwhile, the Attorney General, Al-Siddiq Al-Sour, called for stopping the method of exchanging crude oil for fuel in an official letter addressed to the Chairman of the National Oil Corporation’s Management Committee and the members.
In a 2023 report, the Audit Bureau revealed that spending on exchanging crude oil for fuel amounted to 41.2 billion dinars, while the former head of the National Oil Corporation, Farhat Bengdara, confirmed that fuel payments are not made through oil exchange, but rather through a clearing account mechanism to settle the value of fuel with parties importing Libyan oil.
