(MENAFN- The Peninsula) Libya's Prime Minister Abdullah Al Thinni has said his government would run its own oil sales and deposit revenues abroad in a bid to divert proceeds away from a rival self-declared administration in Tripoli.
Crude revenues are at the heart of a battle for control of the North African Opec producer that has pitted the two rival governments against each other in a growing conflict, four years after the civil war ousted strongman Muammar Gaddafi.
Thinni, based in the eastern city of Al-Bayda, announced late on Saturday he had authorised his internationally recognised government's oil corporation to open a separate bank account in the United Arab Emirates for oil revenues and to seek independent oil sales.
Until now oil sales and revenues have gone through Libya's central bank and National Oil Corporation in Tripoli, where a rival administration took over last summer. The Tripoli-based NOC has tried to stay out of the conflict between the rival governments.
Analysts say Thinni's government will struggle to convince international traders it is legally entitled to claim ownership of Libyan crude. "The purpose of opening a bank account in the United Arab Emirates is the collection ... of oil revenues," Al-Mabrook Bou Seif, head of Thinni's NOC in eastern Libya, said. He said any revenues from sales would be transferred from there to a central bank branch in Al Bayda. He said several foreign partners had been contacted but gave no details.
Officials from the Tripoli-based state firm, also known as NOC, were not immediately available to comment on the plan.
Thinni's government also plans to open representative offices of its NOC in the United States, Britain and Germany, and carry out swaps of Libyan crude for refined products and fuel to provide basic supplies.
Oil experts say it will be difficult for Thinni to assert more control on the sector as this would likely require adjusting contracts with Libya's clients. Reuters
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