The Chairman of the National Oil Company of Libya Board of Directors, Engineer Mustafa Sanalla, Member of the Board of Directors for Exploration and Production, Abulgasem Shengeer, and Manager of International Cooperation Office, Salah Ben Ali, met with the Ambassador of the Kingdom of Spain to Libya, Javier García-Larrache, and his entourage to discuss several issues in the Libyan oil and gas sector.

The meeting centred around the bilateral relations between the two countries in the oil sector, the challenges faced by the oil and gas sector in Libya since the beginning of this year, and ways to further be of help to each other in the oil and gas sector.

The Chairman gave an overview of the challenges faced throughout the blockade and spoke about the efforts made to return production rates to their previous level after force majeure was lifted on the fields.

He noted that the security and stability of Libya will reflect on the security and stability of the Mediterranean Sea region and the European Union. He also stated that the NOC seeks to expand the cooperation horizons in the energy sector.

He said, “We are happy with our partnership with the Spanish company Repsol and there has been a commercial exchange between Libya and Spain in the oil and its derivatives field that exceeded 7.5 billion dollars during the last three years. The National Oil Corporation wishes to raise the commercial exchange rates in oil and gas field and we appreciate and are thankful for the role that Repsol has been playing through its cooperation with us in capability building and sustainable development aspects.”

Abulgasem Shengeer said that the Libyan oil sector needs the Spanish service companies to return because of their capability and long expertise in the field to meet the requirements of the sector in training and other aspects to develop the Libyan personnel.

The Ambassador congratulated the Chairman and the Members of Board present on their ability to return production to the normal rates. He said he will work on encouraging the Spanish service companies to return to Libya and invest in it.