Libya rebels 'to review oil deals'

Libya rebels 'to review oil deals'

Libya's rebel council said today it would review all contracts, including lucrative oil deals, signed under Muammar Gaddafi's government were it to come to power and axe any where it found signs of corruption.

News wires 29 June 2011 19:50 GMT

Speaking in Paris after rebel chief Mahmoud Jibril and his defence attache met French officials including President Nicolas Sarkozy, Information Minister Mahmoud Shammam also told reporters the rebels had received their first funds pledged internationally - a $100 million loan from Qatar.

"With regards to the future, contracts agreed by Libya will be put under review and if there appears to be proof of commissions or financial corruption we will consider ourselves free from them," Shammam told reporters.

Oil companies with contracts in Libya include Total , Eni , BP and ConocoPhillips.

Officials in the rebel leadership have previously played down the likelihood that they will tear up Libya's revenue sharing agreements with foreign oil majors, saying they will respect contracts signed by state-owned National Oil Company (NOC).

"Of course, (it includes) oil (contracts)," Shammam told Reuters. "If people steal your money are you going to let them get away with it?"

He said if companies were found to have won their contracts illegally, they would be given the option to pay back "funds to the Libyan people”.

He also said: "We will give priority to the countries that were on our side. We will not make equal those who helped us and those who sat with their arms crossed watching. This is a clear message to those who still do not support us and do not recognise us."

The rebels, who urgently need between $2 billion and $3 billion to cover salaries and other needs, have won promises of about $1.1 billion in financial assistance from Western and Arab supporters for their bid to wrest power from Gaddafi, but few pledges have come through.

Libya's economy relies on oil exports and the rebels have struggled to make ends meet as damage to energy infrastructure caused by the civil war has brought production to a halt in what used to be a major Opec oil producer in North Africa.

Shammam said he hoped the rebels would receive all these funds by the start of the holy month of Ramadan in August. It received $100 million from Qatar on Monday backed by a guarantee of $800 million sitting in Qatari banks belonging to the Libyan sovereign wealth fund, Shammam said.

A multi-nation contact group, which includes Western and Arab countries as well as organisations such as the United Nations, will meet again on 15 July in Turkey to discuss the latest financial, political and military situation.

More than 90 days into a NATO bombing campaign, Gaddafi is refusing to relinquish power, leaving Western and Arab states counting on a combination of rebel advances on Tripoli and an uprising in the city itself to dislodge him.

However, Shammam, who last week had suggested the rebels could accept Gaddafi staying in Libya were he to step down, said this was no longer an option.

"After the ICC decision it seems that all the initiatives are at an impasse ... it seems the possibility for contact with a third party has completely disappeared and the door has closed," he said.

The Hague-based ICC issued warrants on Monday for Gaddafi, his son Saif al-Islam and Libyan intelligence chief Abdullah al-Senussi on charges of crimes against humanity for their role in the killing of civilian protesters.

Published: 29 June 2011 19:50 GMT | Last updated: 29 June 2011 20:03 GMT


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Gaddafi: ‘Oil behind arrest warrants’

Arrest warrants issued for Muammar Gaddafi and two others are founded on the “desperation” of outside forces to plunder Libya’s oil, the embattled national leader has claimed.

Eoin O'Cinneide 28 June 2011 07:43 GMT

Gaddafi lambasted the International Criminal Court’s decision to indict him, his son Saif Islam and his intelligence chief Abdullah Sanussi, saying the Hague-based court has “no jurisdiction” in Libya and has taken the law into its own hands.

On Monday the court issued the arrest warrants for the three men, alleging their involvement in murder and persecution in the second half of February this year as the Arab Spring swept across Libya.

Gaddafi hit back today, however, through a press release sent to Upstream and other media from his South Africa and Italy-based lawyers, claiming the court’s “jurisdiction, independence and impartiality have been compromised”.

“The Libyan Arab Jamahiriya never signed or ratified the international treaty establishing the [ICC], therefore such international treaty and the [ICC] do not apply,” it read.

“We have good reasons to believe that the case against our client is found on the desperation to have access to the rich oil resources and not any legal ground as Nato should account on the destruction of Libyan infrastructure, killing of innocent civilians, women and children as well as the deprivation of access to basic necessities, including baby food.”

Gaddafi accused the ICC of misleading the world “about its penchant to take the law into its own hands” and said the speed at which the court had made its decision was “extraordinary” when set aside examples of other regimes under the spotlight, including Guinea, Afghanistan and Colombia.

“Regarding the situation in Libya, the Prosecutor took three days to decide to open an investigation...In just five days the ICC Prosecutor already indicated the names of the persons under investigation.”

Gaddafi did, however, appear to offer an attempt at a resolution of the current conflict tin Libya, calling on Nato to “abandon its threat to kill” Gaddafi so that he could be represented in a “fair tribunal”.

(To read Gaddafi’s lawyers’ press release in full, click on the related media section above.)

Published: 28 June 2011 07:43 GMT | Last updated: 28 June 2011 08:03 GMT


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