Sanalla attacks the attempt to sell the “foreign partner’s” stake in the Ras Lanuf refinery to an “unidentified buyer”
The former head of the National Oil Corporation, Mustafa Sanalla, attacked the foreign company’s attempt to sell its share in the “Ras Lanuf” refinery to an “anonymous buyer,” indicating that he did not know how the corporation could approve this deal without knowing the identity of the buyer, especially since this approval Requires Al-Dabaiba approval.
Sanallah said in a blog post on his Facebook account that the “Ras Lanuf” refinery is the largest refinery in Libya, constitutes two-thirds of the country’s refining capacity and controls 80 million barrels of oil annually, or 18% of the state’s sole income, and it should not be It is dealt with through “unknown partners.”
He continued by saying, “The current foreign partner is already a dissenting partner. He has lost all the cases he filed before international arbitration and the local judiciary as well, in which judgments were issued, and his loss of the remaining cases is almost settled. Within a few weeks, a ruling will be issued in the appeal filed before the Supreme Court in Paris, which the partner filed to prevent The institution appointed an expert to buy his share, with the assumption that the institution would make a significant profit for the ruling.”
He continued, saying, “This ruling will make the dissolution of the partnership and the purchase of the partner’s share at a low price a fait accompli in just weeks, and the partner’s negotiating position will be weaker than his current weak position due to his loss of all the cases he has filed, or he will be forced to leave in secret.”
He continued, saying, “At the beginning of 2022, the partner had expressed his desire to exit through negotiations in exchange for $100 million, but he broke off the negotiations for unknown reasons. Who will be the unknown partner that the opposing partner will bring, and will he be better than the previous one?”
He concluded by saying, “I believe that the solution is either for the National Oil Corporation, through the External Disputes Team of the General Department of Legal Affairs, in cooperation with the State Cases Department and the Corporation’s international lawyer, to negotiate with the partner from a position of strength, given that all previous judicial and arbitration rulings are in its favor and that its position is in the rest.” The issues are strong, or the corporation will wait for the ruling of the Supreme Court in Paris to dissolve the partnership and for the National Oil Corporation to purchase the partner’s share at a fair market price.”
