Libyan Oil Minister Mohamed Aoun affirmed on Sunday that the National Oil Corporation (NOC) is affirmed with the government of Abdul Hamid Dbeibeh, and not the House of Representatives.
In a statement, Aoun cited Libya’s Grand Mufti, Sadiq Al-Ghariani, who made similar remarks previously.
The minister urged NOC to cooperate with the government by “disbursing funds to conduct elections”. He also called on the state-owned oil company to “get rid of foreign and domestic domination which dictates [NOC’s] decisions and prevent it from spending disbursing money.”
Notably, Aoun’s statement comes after news website Africa Intelligence reported two weeks ago that Dbeibeh’s government has been stripped out of oil revenues by NOC as part of a “financial blockade” by the United States.