UAE/FILE: Senior rebel representative for reconstruction says all Libya oil contracts will be honoured

Record ID: 343693

  • Title: UAE/FILE: Senior rebel representative for reconstruction says all Libya oil contracts will be honoured
  • Date: 25th August 2011
  • Summary: TOBRUK, LIBYA (FILE - MARCH 15, 2011) (REUTERS) MORE OF TOBRUK OIL REFINERY IN THE EAST OF LIBYA
  • Embargoed: 9th September 2011 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: United Arab Emirates, Libya
  • City:
  • Country: United Arab Emirates Libya
  • Topics: Business,International Relations,Politics,Energy
  • Reuters ID: LVA3W4ZSI4QM4P05B67DDZIQ0LK4
  • Story Text: A Libyan rebel government would honour all the oil contracts granted during the Muammar Gaddafi era, including those of Chinese companies, said Ahmed Jehani, a senior rebel representative for reconstruction on Tuesday (August 23).
    "The contracts in the oil fields are absolutely sacrosanct," Jehani said.
    "All lawful contracts will be honoured whether they are in the oil and gas complex or in the contracting... At the moment it is not for this government to decide whether they will be revoking any contract," he added while on a trip to Dubai.
    A spokesman for rebel-run oil firm AGOCO warned on Monday (August 22) Chinese and Russian firms could lose out on oil contracts for failing to back the rebellion against Gaddafi's 42-year rule.
    China urged Libyan rebels on Tuesday to protect its investments in North Africa's biggest oil producing country.
    Jehani, who chairs the rebel's Libya reconstruction team, said Chinese investment and financial assistance would be welcome to help rebuild the war-torn country.
    "We are not making any discrimination," he said, adding: "There will be issues as to how we're going to have to pay for this and whether we have the money etc... Absorptive capacity issue - these are capacity issues in the non-oil sector, in the oil sector you have no problem."
    He said the cost of repairing damaged oil installations would be less of a problem than the technical challenges of reviving production from the country's oil fields after months of stagnation.
    "The most difficult part is how much pressure you have lost in the oil fields and how do you bring it up again, how can you clean up the sludge that's been created by the fact that you are not pumping oil."
    Jehani said reconstruction efforts to bring oil and other industrial infrastructure back to normal would take at least nine months.
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