Libya’s internationally recognised government has announced plans to open a bank account in the United Arab Emirates from which to manage oil and gas transactions and revenue from sales, Reuters has reported.
Prime Minister Abdullah al-Thinni’s government authorised his government’s parallel NOC to open a separate bank account in the UAE for oil revenues and to seek independent oil sales.
Until now oil sales and revenues have gone through Libya’s central bank and the National Oil Corporation (NOC) in Tripoli, which says it wants to stay out of the conflict between the two governments.
The move by Thinni’s government would be made to divert revenue from the rival government in Tripoli, but analysts say it may struggle to convince international traders and companies it is legally entitled to claim ownership of Libyan crude.
Thinni said it would also seek to open representative offices of its NOC in the United States, Britain and Germany, and carry out swaps of Libyan crude for refined products and fuel to provide basic supplies.
