The Libyan National Petroleum Company (NOC) announced record net export revenues during the year 2021 having exceeded more than 21.5 billion dollars in a sector vital to Libya’s economy, regularly.
“Total net revenues during the past year amounted to 21.555 billion dollars and 30.098 billion euros”, a record for at least six years, welcomed the NOC in a statement on Friday, about revenues generated by Libyan oil and gas exports.
Driven by soaring prices in international markets, net revenues for the months of November and December 2021 alone from sales of crude, gas and other products reached a record high of 4.3 billion, said the NOC.
Libya, which has the most abundant oil reserves in Africa, is trying to extricate itself from a decade of chaos since the fall of Muammar Gaddafi’s regime in 2011.
In recent years, the country’s economic activity, almost exclusively dependent on oil revenue, has been hostage to the deep divisions between the rival camps in the East and West.
Oil installations are regularly the target of attacks or blockades by armed groups to put pressure on one side or the other, or for wage or social demands.
After experiencing periods of sharp decline, production has risen to around 1.2 million barrels per day currently on average, compared to 1.5 to 1.6 million before 2011.
The end of 2021 corresponded to a recovery and oil prices saw their largest annual increase since 2016 thanks to the recovery of the world economy after the stagnation due to the Covid-19 pandemic, explained the boss of the NOC, Mustafa Sanalla, quoted in the press release.
But the capacity of the Libyan oil sector to invest in infrastructure remains weak due in particular to the lack of budgetary financing, Lamented the head of the public group, calling to save this sector, the only source of financing for the public treasury.
Significant tensions exist between Sanalla and Oil Minister Mohamad Aoun, who repeatedly tried to sack the very powerful NOC boss before Prime Minister Abdelhamid Dbeibah intervened.
