Following claims yesterday from the Libyan National Transitory Council that the Libyan Energy Minister, Dr Shokri Ghanem, had fled Libya and joined the rebels, reports have emerged overnight which confirm he has left the country and is in Tunisia. He is widely expected to make that a transitory stop on the way to a European country.
An Al Arabiya TV broadcast on Tuesday morning, had suggested Ghanem, who also holds the role of National Oil Company CEO, had defected from Al Ghaddafi regime.
Ghanem was re-appointed as energy minister in November 2009.
Britain’s Financial Times this morning quoted a consultant with long experience of Libya saying: “Shokri is a very clever person. I can’t imagine that once he’s out he will go back.”
Despite tough restrictions on movement, particularly from Tripoli, key leading regime figures have fled in recent months when the opportunity presents itself. In March Moussa Koussa, the former Foreign Minister fled to the UK.
On 19 March 2011 a multi-state coalition began a military intervention in Libya to implement United Nations Security Council Resolution 1973, which was taken in response to events during the 2011 Libyan civil war. On 19 March, military operations began, with US and British forces firing over 110 Tomahawk cruise missiles, the French Air Force and British Royal Air Force undertaking sorties across Libya and a naval blockade by the Royal Navy.
Qatar, Jordan and the United Arab Emirates are among the Middle Eastern States states enforcing the UN resoultion 1973. Qatar Petroleum is currently marketing part of the oil produced from wells located on the eastern coast. The eastern coast is controlled by rebels.
Libya is among the dozen full OPEC members, and when functioning properly produces about 1.6 million bpd of crude oil. The majority of its output is destined for European markets.
Libya is the 16th largest country in the world in terms of land mass, comprising more than 1.7 million square kilometres. More than a quarter of the country’s six million plus inhabitants live in its capital city, Tripoli.
Apart from petroleum, the SP Libyan AJ’s other natural resources are natural gas and gypsum. Its economy depends primarily on revenues from the oil sector, which contribute about 95 per cent of export earnings, about one-quarter of gross domestic product, and 60 per cent of public sector wages. Substantial revenues from the energy sector, coupled with a small population, give the Libya AJ one of the highest per capita GDPs in Africa, despite huge disparities in regional wealth and wages across its favoured, and less favoured regions.
