Total, other foreign firms seek to renew Libya licences

TRIPOLI — France’s Total and other foreign firms have started to renew their business licences with Libya’s internationally recognised government to keep operating in the country, the Tripoli-based economy minister told Reuters.

The comments by Ali Abdulaziz Issawi could appease Western concerns the Tripoli government will try to suspend oil and other firms as it fights for survival against an offensive by the eastern military forces of Khalifa Haftar.

In May, the economy ministry suspended Total and 39 other foreign firms, saying their licences had expired, before granting a grace period of three months to seek new ones.

Some diplomats and analysts saw the move as political pressure aimed at shoring up support abroad against an assault by Haftar’s Libya National Army (LNA), which has been trying for more than two months to take the capital Tripoli.

Issawi denied a political motive, saying some firms had operated without a licence for a long time.

“There are companies working now on renewing their licences in Libya,” he said, adding Total was among them.

He added that if a licence did not get renewed, “there are several oil companies to take [over] the oilfields in 24 hours. There is a lot of competition.”

Other firms required to renew their licences include French aerospace firm Thales, German engineering firm Siemens, telecoms equipment firm Alcatel-Lucent, now owned by Finland’s Nokia, and Microsoft. Total is most exposed, with oil operations on the ground.

Issawi also said Libya’s oil production was around 1.25 million barrels a day, in line with previously reported levels.

Libya has been riven by conflict since the fall of Muammar Qadhafi in 2011, with the country now broadly split between eastern-based forces under Haftar and the UN-backed government in Tripoli, in the west, under Prime Minister Fayez Al Sarraj.