African Arguments

Top Menu

  • About Us
    • Our philosophy
  • Write for us
  • Contact us
  • Advertise
  • Newsletter
  • RSS feed
  • Donate
  • Fellowship

Main Menu

  • Home
  • Country
    • Central
      • Cameroon
      • Central African Republic
      • Chad
      • Congo-Brazzaville
      • Congo-Kinshasa
      • Equatorial Guinea
      • Gabon
    • East
      • Burundi
      • Comoros
      • Dijbouti
      • Eritrea
      • Ethiopia
      • Kenya
      • Rwanda
      • Seychelles
      • Somalia
      • Somaliland
      • South Sudan
      • Sudan
      • Tanzania
      • Uganda
      • Red Sea
    • North
      • Algeria
      • Egypt
      • Libya
      • Morocco
      • Tunisia
      • Western Sahara
    • Southern
      • Angola
      • Botswana
      • eSwatini
      • Lesotho
      • Madagascar
      • Malawi
      • Mauritius
      • Mozambique
      • Namibia
      • South Africa
      • Zambia
      • Zimbabwe
    • West
      • Benin
      • Burkina Faso
      • Cape Verde
      • Côte d’Ivoire
      • The Gambia
      • Ghana
      • Guinea
      • Guinea Bissau
      • Liberia
      • Mali
      • Mauritania
      • Niger
      • Nigeria
      • São Tomé and Príncipe
      • Senegal
      • Sierra Leone
      • Togo
  • Politics
    • Elections Map
  • Economy
  • Society
    • Climate crisis
  • Culture
  • Specials
    • From the fellows
    • Radical Activism in Africa
    • On Food Security & COVID19
    • #EndSARS
    • Covid-19
    • Travelling While African
    • From the wit-hole countries…
    • Living in Translation
    • Red Sea
    • Beautiful Game
  • Podcast
    • Into Africa Podcast
    • Africa Science Focus Podcast
    • Think African Podcast
  • Debating Ideas
  • About Us
    • Our philosophy
  • Write for us
  • Contact us
  • Advertise
  • Newsletter
  • RSS feed
  • Donate
  • Fellowship

logo

African Arguments

  • Home
  • Country
    • Central
      • Cameroon
      • Central African Republic
      • Chad
      • Congo-Brazzaville
      • Congo-Kinshasa
      • Equatorial Guinea
      • Gabon
    • East
      • Burundi
      • Comoros
      • Dijbouti
      • Eritrea
      • Ethiopia
      • Kenya
      • Rwanda
      • Seychelles
      • Somalia
      • Somaliland
      • South Sudan
      • Sudan
      • Tanzania
      • Uganda
      • Red Sea
    • North
      • Algeria
      • Egypt
      • Libya
      • Morocco
      • Tunisia
      • Western Sahara
    • Southern
      • Angola
      • Botswana
      • eSwatini
      • Lesotho
      • Madagascar
      • Malawi
      • Mauritius
      • Mozambique
      • Namibia
      • South Africa
      • Zambia
      • Zimbabwe
    • West
      • Benin
      • Burkina Faso
      • Cape Verde
      • Côte d’Ivoire
      • The Gambia
      • Ghana
      • Guinea
      • Guinea Bissau
      • Liberia
      • Mali
      • Mauritania
      • Niger
      • Nigeria
      • São Tomé and Príncipe
      • Senegal
      • Sierra Leone
      • Togo
  • Politics
    • Elections Map
  • Economy
  • Society
    • Climate crisis
  • Culture
  • Specials
    • From the fellows
    • Radical Activism in Africa
    • On Food Security & COVID19
    • #EndSARS
    • Covid-19
    • Travelling While African
    • From the wit-hole countries…
    • Living in Translation
    • Red Sea
    • Beautiful Game
  • Podcast
    • Into Africa Podcast
    • Africa Science Focus Podcast
    • Think African Podcast
  • Debating Ideas
Politics
Home›African Arguments›Politics›Libya: Political, logistical and security problems challenge National Oil Company’s move to Benghazi – By John Hamilton

Libya: Political, logistical and security problems challenge National Oil Company’s move to Benghazi – By John Hamilton

By Uncategorised
June 20, 2013
1950
3

Libyan PM Ali Zeidan has pushed through the relocation of the National Oil Corporation from Tripoli to Benghazi.

The Libyan government’s decision to relocate the headquarters of National Oil Corporation (NOC) from Tripoli to Benghazi raises more questions than it answers.  These include when and how the move will be made, what parts of the corporation will be relocated and what effect it will have on NOC’s still poorly defined relationship with the Ministry of Oil and Gas, and with its own joint ventures and subsidiaries.

The move will also have political and security ramifications for IOCs and service companies.  For all these reasons, it is not likely to happen soon. Additionally, NOC will have to build a new headquarters for itself and one of Benghazi’s problems is that almost nothing has been built there since its population overthrew late leader Muammar al-Qadhafi in February 2011.

Eastern Libya’s oilfields account for two thirds of national production, but under Qadhafi Cyrenaica was neglected in favour of the western province of Tripolitania, creating longstanding resentments which the revolution’s aftermath has done little to appease.  The move follows a series of strikes and protests at the lack of economic development in Cyrenaica.  In December, union leaders in Benghazi threatened that NOC subsidiaries in the province would break away from central control unless the state company moved its headquarters to the city.

It is doubtful that NOC will shift to Cyrenaica in exactly the same form that it is now.   What functions may be transferred raises a broader unanswered question about the role the corporation should play.  Currently the top floor of its relatively new Tripoli headquarters is occupied by the new ministry – which will stay in Tripoli.  The ministry is currently small, but could grow.  It might therefore want to retain certain functions in the capital such as oversight, budgets, regulation, and even international marketing.  No details have been released.  The decision also does not address the desire for subsidiary companies in the upstream, downstream or service sector to have more autonomy.   The Benghazi-based Arabian Gulf Oil Company (Agoco) is struggling to maintain production thanks to management failures combined with unsatisfactory budget allocations.  If NOC moves east, how will this affect the internal relationship between these two entities, not to mention the various downstream, drilling, domestic oil marketing and service subsidiaries?

Already there are signs that officials favour parcelling out functions to different parts of the country to ease political pressures.  On 10 June, Prime Minister Ali Zidan attempted to placate the southern region of Fezzan, issuing an order creating an oil refining company in Awbari authorised to build a 30-50,000 b/d refinery and a Sebha-based exploration and production company.  The government had previously attempted to keep federalists in Benghazi happy with the offer of splitting NOC in two and moving its downstream headquarters to Cyrenaica.  This was rejected by local politicians and unions.

The politics of the decision and its long term security implications are deeply intertwined.  According to some reports, the government was pushed to announce the move after a group calling itself the Cyrenaica Transitional Council declared self-rule for the province. Federalism may not yet be supported by a majority of Cyrenaicans, but is growing in popularity thanks to central government’s failure to stimulate local development.  Supporters of the relocation hope that returning NOC to eastern Libya where it was originally based prior to the 1969 Qadhafi revolution will boost the local economy, as IOCs and service companies with offices and depots in Tripoli will be obliged to move them to Cyrenaica.  However, two days after residents of Benghazi celebrated the news of NOC’s return with fireworks, a stand-off between protestors and armed personnel from the Libya Shield Brigade – a militia auxiliary force attached to the National Army – led to fighting in which 27 people died.  As a result, Army chief of staff Yousef Mangoush resigned.    Most assessments suggest that Benghazi is significantly less safe than Tripoli.  While this continues, most of NOC’s relations with IOCs and foreign service companies will remain in the west.

With political agreement, new infrastructure and buildings, a rebuilt sewage system and functioning security, Benghazi could one day become an ideal stopping off point for foreign workers on their way to Sirte Basin fields.  However, for now little can change.

John Hamilton is a director of Cross-border Information, publisher of African Energy.

Previous Article

Memo to the SRF: try not to ...

Next Article

Mali: 3 new briefings from African Affairs

Uncategorised

3 comments

  1. Ruth El Heri 20 June, 2013 at 13:58

    ‘The Benghazi-based Arabian Gulf Oil Company (Agoco) is struggling to maintain production thanks to management failures combined with unsatisfactory budget allocations.’

    Please can you tell where you got this information from?

  2. Lily L. Farley 21 June, 2013 at 07:18

    The politics of the decision and its long term security implications are deeply intertwined. According to some reports, the government was pushed to announce the move after a group calling itself the Cyrenaica Transitional Council declared self-rule for the province. Federalism may not yet be supported by a majority of Cyrenaicans, but is growing in popularity thanks to central government’s failure to stimulate local development. Supporters of the relocation hope that returning NOC to eastern Libya where it was originally based prior to the 1969 Qadhafi revolution will boost the local economy, as IOCs and service companies with offices and depots in Tripoli will be obliged to move them to Cyrenaica. However, two days after residents of Benghazi celebrated the news of NOC’s return with fireworks, a stand-off between protestors and armed personnel from the Libya Shield Brigade – a militia auxiliary force attached to the National Army – led to fighting in which 27 people died. As a result, Army chief of staff Yousef Mangoush resigned. Most assessments suggest that Benghazi is significantly less safe than Tripoli. While this continues, most of NOC’s relations with IOCs and foreign service companies will remain in the west.

  3. John Hamilton 21 June, 2013 at 11:14

    Ruth – I got the information about Agoco’s production problems and the reasons behind it having spoken to people at the company, a couple of Libyan energy consultants, and a source in the oil trade.

Leave a reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

  • On the streets of Kaduna in north-west Nigeria. Credit: pjotter05.
    Africa InsidersNigeria

    Africa Insiders: Behind Nigeria’s Islamic school “torture house”

  • There are over 230,000 Burundian refugees still in Tanzania. Credit: Gilles Amadou Ouédraogo (LWF).
    BurundiSocietyTanzania

    “There is pressure on us”: Burundian refugees in Tanzania pushed to return

  • Politics

    A letter from Warrap State, South Sudan

Subscribe to our newsletter

Click here to subscribe to our free weekly newsletter and never miss a thing!

  • 81.7K+
    Followers

Find us on Facebook

Interactive Elections Map

Keep up to date with all the African elections.

Recent Posts

  • Crisis in Lasanod: Border Disputes, Escalating Insecurity and the Future of Somaliland
  • Oligarchs, Oil and Obi-dients: The battle for the soul of Nigeria
  • Of cobblers, colonialism, and choices
  • Blackness, Pan-African Consciousness and Women’s Political Organising through the Magazine AWA
  • “People want to be rich overnight”: Nigeria logging abounds despite ban

Editor’s Picks

Editor's PicksFellowsNigeriaPolitics

Nigeria: The cautionary tale of the fateful 2020 strike that never was

Just days before #EndSARS, Nigeria’s labour congress disappointed many by calling off what had promised to be a similarly momentous protest. On the morning of 28 September 2020, John*, a ...
  • If you believe you are a citizen of the world…

    By James Wan
    November 6, 2019
  • Girls line up during a basketball drill in Mogadishu, Somalia. Credit: AU UN IST/Tobin Jones.

    To counter al-Shabaab, Somalia’s new govt must do something for the kids

    By Liban Obsiye & Liban A. Hussein
    May 24, 2022
  • Eritreans Biniam Girmay wins the Gent-Wevelgem men's elite race in March 2022, becoming the race's first African winner.

    Why are there no Black riders in the Tour de France?

    By Georgia Cole & Temesgen Futsumbrhan Gebrehiwet
    July 13, 2022
  • A man in Benghazi holds a picture of King Idris in the midst of the Libyan Uprising in 2011. Credit: Maher27777

    Libya: A country in need of a king?

    By Ashraf Boudouara
    July 12, 2022

Brought to you by


Creative Commons

Creative Commons Licence
Articles on African Arguments are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
  • Cookies
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms & Conditions
  • en English
    am Amharicar Arabicny Chichewazh-CN Chinese (Simplified)en Englishfr Frenchde Germanha Hausait Italianpt Portuguesest Sesothosn Shonaes Spanishsw Swahilixh Xhosayo Yorubazu Zulu
© Copyright African Arguments 2020
By continuing to browse this site, you agree to our use of cookies.
en English
am Amharicar Arabicny Chichewazh-CN Chinese (Simplified)en Englishfr Frenchde Germanha Hausait Italianpt Portuguesest Sesothosn Shonaes Spanishsw Swahilixh Xhosayo Yorubazu Zulu