Tripoli— In a surprise development the Chairman of the National Oil Corporation (NOC) Farhat Bengdara had submitted his resignation to the Prime Minister Abdulhamid Dbeibah due to “urgent health condition” and the latter accepted it, according to a NOC’s statement issued on Thursday evening.
Neither the Government of National Unity (GNU) nor NOC elaborated on or explained the exact reasons that directly led to the sudden resignation.
This unexpected development comes amidst escalating challenges facing the oil sector in terms of management and policies and in terms of global oil market instability, along with continuous disagreement among the conflicting political forces and a stalled political process.
Bengdara’s resignation comes on the eve of opening the Libya Energy & Economic Summit in Tripoli for its third edition on January 18-19, 2025. The summit will bring together global investors, project developers and financiers with local stakeholders to advance partnerships and drive impactful deals across key sectors of the Libyan economy.
“The National Oil Corporation announces that the Prime Minister, Eng. Abdul Hamid Dabaiba, has approved the resignation of the Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Corporation, Dr. Farhat Bengdara, which he submitted due to urgent health conditions that prevented him from performing his duties and responsibilities in the best possible way,” the statement said.
Mr. Bengdara was immediately replaced by a member of the Board of Directors, Masoud Suleiman, who was appointed by the PM to assume the duties of Chairman temporarily.
NOC said, “In this context, the Prime Minister decided to assign Eng. Masoud Suleiman Musa, a member of the Board of Directors of the Corporation and the Chairman-in-Charge, to assume the duties of Chairman of the Board of Directors temporarily, until the upcoming meeting of the Council of Ministers to decide to form a new Board of Directors.”
“The Corporation affirms its full commitment to continue working to ensure the stability of the oil sector and enhance its role as a fundamental pillar of the national economy,” the statement added.
On 18 November 2024, both Mr. Dbeibah and Mr. Bengdara held a meeting in Tripoli during which they agreed to proceed in implementing NOC’s strategy to increase oil production up to 2 million bpd by the end of the year 2025. They also agreed that in order to realize such ambitious objective the Government of National Unity (GNU) would allocate the needed funds to finance new investments in the oil sector.
At the time, Bengdara stressed during a meeting at NOC’s headquarters in Tripoli that oil production must be increased as to the directives of the General Assembly meetings the year before, maintaining that there is a need to compensate for the produced reserve through exploration activity and seismic surveys.