Libya reinstates Ghanem as oil chief

27 October 2009

Former chairman returns to original position

Libya has reinstated Shokri Ghanem as chairman of the state-run National Oil Corporation (NOC), more than a month after he left the position.

Ghanem has returned to his previous role as chairman, according to an NOC statement.

On 25 October, Ghanem held a meeting with Prime Minister Baghdadi al-Mahmudi and Saif al-Islam, the son of Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi to discuss issues in Libya’s oil industry, according to the NOC.

NOC’s acting chairman, Ali Seghir Mohammed Saleh, has returned to his previous role as director general of the company.

At the beginning of October, a source at an international oil company in Libya said Al-Mahmudi accepted Ghanem’s resignation in mid-September although NOC never issued an official statement confirming his departure (MEED 1:10:09).

In August, Ghanem said Libya was reviewing its target of producing 3 million barrels a day (b/d) of oil by 2015 (MEED 14:8:09).

Ghanem said the International Energy Agency (IEA) was wrong to claim that Libya has already cut its target to 2.3 million b/d by 2013, but he conceded that the government was re-evaluating its targets.

A MEED Subscription...

Subscribe or upgrade your current MEED.com package to support your strategic planning with the MENA region’s best source of business information. Proceed to our online shop below to find out more about the features in each package.