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One of last year’s biggest shocks was Gaddafi’s suggestion to nationalize the country’s oil and gas interests, a consideration that seemed to echo the early days of the Libyan revolution when the industry was partially nationalized. These words set the stage for the National Oil Corp. to renegotiate long-term contracts in Libya’s favor with major oil companies operating in the country, such as Italy’s ENI, the United States’ Occidental, PetroCanada, France’s Total and Spain’s Repsol, St John added.
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So where does this all leave Libya and its nervous investors today?
Ghanem’s latest declarations are obviously attempts to “put a positive face on an industry that has not been going well in the last 12 to 18 months,” St John said, adding that these events have prompted “great uncertainty” in the oil and gas industry, and “a lot of that’s their own fault.”
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Within the Libyan government there is resistance to encouraging more foreign investment in the oil market, but Ghanem’s argument is the country cannot go it alone, said Henderson. The North African country sorely needs foreign investors but wants them to view such requests as a partnership rather than as an invitation to take over sectors of the economy, he explained.
“The difficult challenge is at home, Arab nationalism is a very strong thing,” Henderson told OilPrice.com “Foreign investors are seen as diminishing Arab nationalism and therefore are resisted ideologically. And from a foreign investor’s point of view, selling the notion to your shareholders that you can get a good agreement with an apparent eccentric like Col. Gaddafi is questionable.”
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http://www.businessinsider.com/libya-courts-oil-and-gas-investors-but-faces-a-tough-sell-following-recent-government-fiascos-2010-2Last year Gaddafi demanded that foreign companies either have Libyans as partners or forget it.
Now we have the rebels, their rapid deals with the French whose intelligence was involved in this uprising, and their emphasis on opening it all up to the private sector as well as protecting the interests and rights of foreign nationals and companies. Could things be any more obvious?
2 + 2 only equals one thing.
Rec'd