Libya wants to fill the European energy void left by Hormuz, says oil minister – POLITICO

The comments come amid what diplomats and business leaders in the country have described to POLITICO as a broader U.S. push to unify the country and open it up for more energy trade, which has led to tentative oil revenue-sharing commitments between the eastern and western administrations and coincided with renewed engagement by Western energy giants, including Italian energy giant Eni and France’s TotalEnergies.

However, a licensing round earlier this year proved disappointing, with only five licenses awarded out of 22.

The minister, who said he was at the ONS conference for the first time, has been doing the rounds in recent days, hailing productive talks with energy majors present at the event, including Shell, ConocoPhillips and TotalEnergies.

However, Libya’s deteriorating security environment also complicates its efforts to pitch itself as a reliable supplier to Europe. Smuggling of fuel by gangs and militias has slowed the country’s output in recent years, and political groups are increasingly targeting energy infrastructure.

Earlier this month, drones struck a power station and a key refinery in Zawiya, near Tripoli, the base of the internationally recognized government in the west of the country, prompting widespread blackouts. In the same week, a top intelligence official working under the regime of Khalifa Haftar, a warlord who holds sway in the east of the country, was killed in a car bomb.

Asked how the country could guarantee a stable operating environment for Western companies given these challenges, a spokesperson for the oil ministry did not offer a comment. The minister himself declined to comment to POLITICO when approached at the sidelines of the event.