Libya and Turkey signed today two memorandum of understandings on hydrocarbons.
Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu arrived in Tripoli today, leading a top delegation which included his country’s minister of Defense, Energy, Commerce, respectively Hulusi Akar, Fatih Donmez, Mehmet Mus, the presidential spokesman Ibrahim Kalin and the communications director, Fahrettin Altun.
During his visit, Cavusoglu met with Libyan Prime Minister Abdul Hamid Dbeibeh at the government headquarters, where the signing ceremony took place.
The deal sparked controversy prior to Cavusoglu’s arrival when Libyan Oil Minister Mohamed Aoun revealed his own duties as minister had been assigned to Economy Minister Muhammad Al-Huwayj by Dbeibeh.
According to sources of The Libya Update, Aoun claims that the Libyan premier made that move to “to pass suspicious oil agreement with Turkey to exploit oil and gas in offshore area near Tobruk in eastern Libya.”
Images of the ceremony posted by Cavusoglu shows Al-Huwayj signing the hydrocarbons deal on behalf of the Libyan government instead of Aoun.