Libyan Oil Minister Mohamed Aoun has rejected proposals for the management of oil revenues until current disputes are resolved in the country.
“The foreign proposals are unacceptable interventions that violate the dignity and sovereignty of Libya,” Aoun told Saudi newspaper Aharq al Awsat in an interview on Sunday.
On March 26, the U.S. Ambassador to Libya, Richard Norland, spoke of the possible establishment of a mechanism to manage oil revenues until an agreement is reached on broader political issues.
According to the American diplomat, such mechanism should ensure that oil revenues are used only to pay “wages, subsidies, oil production and the import of basic necessities such as food and medicine: all this in full transparency “.
The oil production of the country which is a member of the OPEC cartel is approximately 1.2 million barrels per day. Oil Minister Aoun has long been at odds with the chairman of the National Oil Corporation (NOC), Mustafa Sanalla, who nevertheless remains in his post despite requests for resignation from the ministry.
According to Aoun, the total cost for the development of the entire oil sector in Libya exceeds ten billion dollars. He confirmed that Libya currently produces 1.2 million barrels per day of oil and internally consumes around 150,000 barrels per day.
The possible development of new gas and oil discoveries, Aoun concluded, could attract local and foreign investments and trigger state intervention.