Algeria to muzzle Gaddafi exiles:Libyan leader

* Muammar Gaddafi family members given refuge in Algeria

* Algeria won't let family harm Libya: new Libyan leader

* NTC chief on fence-building visit to Algeria

By Abdelaziz Boumzar

ALGIERS, April 16 (Reuters) - Libya's leader said on Monday he had obtained an assurance from Algiers that the family of Muammar Gaddafi would be prevented from sabotaging the new Libyan authorities from its refuge in Algeria.

Algeria allowed Gaddafi's wife, daughter and two of his sons to flee onto its territory after a rebellion ended the autocrat's rule last year, infuriating the rebels in Libya who had already accused Algeria of favouring Gaddafi over them.

But speaking after his first visit to Algeria since last year's revolt, Mustafa Abdel Jalil, head of Libya's National Transitional Council (NTC), said he had reached an understanding on the issue with his Algerian counterpart.

"We understand the humanitarian stance that Algeria took to take in the (Gaddafi) family, especially the women and children," Abdel Jalil told reporters after talks with Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika.

"But we remain convinced that it will not give refuge to those who represent a threat to Libya's security... We have reached an agreement that anything that constitutes a threat to Libya, via financing or subversive activities, will not take place on Algerian territory."

He did not specify if the understanding with the Algerian government meant that the Gaddafi family members would eventually be handed over to Tripoli, or allowed to stay but under tight control. Algerian officials made no comment.

REPAIRING TIES

Muammar Gaddafi's wife Safiya, his daughter Aisha, and two of his sons, Mohammed and Hannibal, are in an undisclosed location in Algeria.

Libyan officials at the time described Algeria's decision to grant refuge to the family as an "act of aggression." There was fresh anger from Tripoli when Aisha telephoned a television station from Algeria with messages of support for Gaddafi loyalists inside Libya.

A source who has been in touch with some of the Gaddafi family members in Algeria told Reuters their contacts with the outside world were now subject to tighter restrictions.

The long-running row between Algeria and Libya's new leadership had disrupted security cooperation that Western states believe is crucial to restoring stability to the volatile southern edge of the Sahara desert.

The region is a haven for weapons smugglers and al Qaeda's north African wing, and instability there helped fuel a separatist rebellion in northern Mali.

Abdel Jalil's visit should help draw a line under the two countries' dispute and restore fully-fledged security cooperation.

Security forces from Libya and Algeria have already had talks about sharing intelligence, joint border patrols, and training.

In another step towards normalising ties, Algerian state energy firm Sonatrach is planning to resume its activities in Libya soon, an Algerian energy sector official told Reuters.

Sonatrach, like most foreign energy companies, pulled its staff out during last year's rebellion. Under Gaddafi the company acquired oil and gas exploration rights in the Ghadames basin, near the border between Libya and Algeria.

Qatar's QNB acquires 49% stake in Libyan bank

Qatar National Bank (QNB) Group on Saturday announced it had acquired of a 49 percent stake in Libya's Bank of Commerce and Development.

The Benghazi-based bank approved QNB Group as a strategic partner, according to a memorandum of agreement signed between the two institutions.

Ali Shareef Al-Emadi, QNB Group CEO, said the move was in line with the company's strategic "plan of international expansion in selected and promising markets".

Jamal Abdelmalek, chairman of The Bank of Commerce and Development, said the agreement would result in an "increase in the bank's capital, which will support its financial position and its ability to expand in the Libyan market".

The Bank of Commerce and Development was established in 1995 and has a network of 32 branches supported by 82 ATMs, with nearly 820 staff. The bank's total assets are $2bn.

Under the deal, QNB Group will provide administrative and technical services for the operations of the Bank of Commerce and Development.

QNB Group achieved strong financial results for the first quarter of 2012 with a net profit of QR2bn, up by 17.4 percent compared to the same period last year.

Total assets increased by 28.2 percent since 31 March 2011 to reach QR311.1bn, the highest ever achieved by the Group.

QNB, which employs nearly 7,000 staff, provides banking services through 335 branches and offices with an ATM network of more than 650 machines.

Winning Business in Libya - a narrowing window of opportunity for business

On behalf of the City and Financial, with the support of UKTI and many organisations “SOC Libya Ltd is one of them”, we are pleased to invite you to attend of one this year largest events in the UK that will take place on 14^th May 2012 at London’s Park Hotel. (http://bit.ly/IzuX5Y)

  

The event will provide UK companies with a solid base to explore the potential of the Libyan market and will lead to support the development of the country. It will also be an excellent chance for Libyan businessmen, individuals and companies to meet with British companies in the hope of forming JVs and partnerships.

There will also be a great number of speakers who will share with you their insight and expertise on the market and best strategic market entry plans.

 The main focus of the event will be on the followings:

A Narrowing Window of Opportunity

With the Libyan elections due in June and contracts already being awarded and/or put out to tender, there is a rapidly narrowing window of opportunity for British companies to win business. This point was underscored by Raouf Ghali, Group President, Hill International when he said: “There are major opportunities from now until September …. Anyone who wants to be in Libya should be there now. Once the newly elected Government comes in the speed at which companies will be expected to go forward will be a very fast pace”

Finding Local Partners

If, as is expected, the existing Libyan rules for joint ventures which require 75% of employees to be local are maintained, then British businesses must be effective in knowing who they need to develop relations with, as well as knowing which contracts can be won.

An A-Z to Winning Business

Winning Business in Libya - A Practical Guide for UK Companies is designed to be both practical and highly focused on advising British companies about how they can position themselves so that they are well placed to win the contracts that will begin to be tendered after the election. The programme will offer a “what you need to know A-Z”.

The Political and Security Outlook

Although there are great opportunities in Libya it would be a mistake not to recognise that the political and security outlook for the country remains uncertain and that a number of factors will impact upon the Libyan business environment. These will be addressed by examining the current political environment and hotspots such as security considerations

and corruption risks.

The Conference in brief

• Finding and connecting with business partners in Libya

• Accessing trade finance for your export activity

• Key sectors and probable contracts within the sector

• Who you need to know in order to position yourself for the tender process

• How procurement will work (and how it will be different from the Gaddafi era)

• Understanding the emerging business and political context

• Workshops

o Oil & Gas

o Transport Infrastructure

o Health

o Education & Training

If you wish to attend kindly find the link below.

http://www.cityandfinancial.com/conference/rebuilding_libya_2_discounted

For further information please do not hesitate to contact the organisers directly as below

Nick Noakes

Marketing Director

City & Financial

8 Westminster Court

Hipley St

Old Woking

GU22 9LG

UK

T +44 (0) 1483 720707

F +44 (0) 1483 740401

E: NNoakes@CityandFinancial.com

W www.cityandfinancial.com

 Or

Virva Piippo

Conference Manager

City & Financial Ltd

Direct line: +44 (0) 1483 746 980

Email: vpiippo@cityandfinancial.com

I sincerely look forward to meeting you in person to further discuss any projects.

 Yours Sincerely,

Tarek Alwan

Managing Director

SOC Libya Ltd

T: 0208 9878450

M: 07774013043

E: info@soclibya.com

E: tarek@soclibya.com

Libya asks "Turkey" for help to restructure oil facilities

A view of Zawiya oil refinery is pictured in Zawiya 57 kilometers west of Tripoli. Restructuring Libya needs international support to rebuild its oil facilities.

Libya’s Economy Minister Ahmed al-Koshli said yesterday that his country wants to benefit from the technology Turkey possesses, speaking in the “Energy, Economy and Sustainable Development” session of the Eurasian Economic Summit.

“The know-how and experienceTurkey has is very important for us. We want Turkey to share its experiences with Libya,” he said, adding that his country is working on integrating with the global economy. Al-Koshli also said Libya’s bourse is now open. “Free Libya wants to learn about environmentally friendly technologies, especially solar and wind energy, so that we will have the opportunity to export clean energy to Europe and other countries.”

Meanwhile, Mohammad Reza Farzin, Iran’s deputy minister of economy and finance, said Iran’s government has decided to initiate reforms in the areas of energy prices and economic development.

Unfair distribution

Iran is the 17th largest economy in the world, with its $930 billion GDP, according to data from the International Monetary Fund, Farzin said. The country has the second largest oil and natural gas reserves in the world. 

Keeping energy prices artificially low leads to unfair income distribution, energy smuggling and higher energy consumption, Farzin said, adding that if the current rate of increase in energy consumption in Iran continues for the next 20 years, the country will consume all the oil it produces.

Source: Hurriyet daily news

Malta releases €300 million in assets belonging to Libya

Malta has released some €300 million in assets belonging to Libyan companies which had been frozen in line with EU and UN sanctions last year.

The sanctions were lifted a few weeks ago.

However, a Foreign Ministry spokesman said about €86 million in assets believed to have belonged to members of Muammar Gaddafi’s family were still frozen.

The assets had been frozen last August at the height of the Libyan crisis.

In February, Malta returned two Mirage F1 fighters which had been held on the island after their Libyan pilots defected at the start of the revolution.

The unfreezing of assets was a subject brought up during meetings between the Maltese government and the new Libyan authorities following the downfall of the Gaddafi regime.

Discussions between Malta and the Libyan transitional government are currently following another important line: the possibility of buying oil and gas from Libya at favourable rates.

Although the talks are still in their early stages, Finance Minister Tonio Fenech last weekend said the Libyans were showing strong signs of goodwill to strike a deal, perhaps due to the help Malta had extended during the Libyan crisis.

Source: Times of Malta 

Libya's fuel sector returns to pre-war levels

Libya's fuel sector returns to pre-war levels - Africa - Al Jazeera English

Oil and gas production in Libya are returning to pre-conflict levels, with many oil-producing facilities up and running after being abandoned during the violence.

Getting the oil sector back on track was a priority for Libya's interim government, but the future of the industry is still uncertain.

Al Jazeera's Omar Al Saleh reports from an oil rig off the Libyan coast.

Eni cooperates in U.S. probe into Libya contracts

Italian oil and gas group Eni is cooperating with U.S. authorities in a probe of oil contracts in Libya, its chairman said on Tuesday.

"We are an open book. We are cooperating with authorities and we'll see how the situation develops," Giuseppe Recchi said on the sidelines of a conference when asked about an investigation by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

The SEC has requested from Eni documents related to an ongoing probe into "certain illicit payments to Libyan officials" possibly violating the U.S. Foreign Corruption Practice Act, Eni said in its 2011 annual report filing to the SEC.

Separately, Libya has started investigating foreign oil companies over their past relationships with the former Muammar Gaddafi government.

Source: Reuters 

The Libyan Uprising and Foreign Contractors: Resorting to Force Majeure under Libyan Law

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After decades of oppression and injustice, the Libyans, after many attempts, were finally successful in their elimination of the Qaddafi regime.  Peaceful demonstrations initiated by the Libyan people morphed into armed conflict due to the irresponsible and brutal acts of the regime. As a result of the destruction that was launched by the Qaddafi regime against its own people, normal life during the period ended. Business establishments closed and expatriate workers fled.  After eight months of bloody battles and the loss of tens of thousands of lives, the National Transitional Council declared the liberation of Libya from the Qaddafi regime on 23 October 2011.

At a time when Libyans are eagerly gearing up to rebuild their country, international contractors are checking their records and calculating their losses during the Libyan revolution. Although these claims have a legitimate place in commerce, it is unfortunate at this particular time of rebirth, Libyans are left to deal with the uneven commercial legacy of the old regime.  Yet, this is the insistent nature of commerce.  Further, as a Libyan, I would say that everything sacrificed by the Libyan people, whether in lives or money, was worth the result of getting rid Qaddafi and his henchmen and creating a more representative entity in the commercial sector.  Therefore, we Libyans look forward to building a more responsible relationship with the previous or new contractors in our new Libya.

In this article, we shall attempt to shed some light on the possibilities of settling claims between international contractors and Libya.

Did the Libyan Revolution Trigger an Event of Force Majeure?

To claim an event of force majeure, in general a party to a contract must find a degree of difficulty in discharging his obligations.  There is no doubt that the Libyan revolution is an obvious example of a clear case of force majeure.  Note that it was impossible for the average individual to live a normal life.  Government offices, especially in the eastern part of the country, closed their doors and communication with those offices was impossible.

As a result of the revolution, the expatriate work force fled to neighboring countries and materials became scarce as a result of the state of war. Therefore, it became impossible for international contractors to continue performing their obligations under the contracts.

Simply stated, all acts by the Qaddafi regime triggered an event of force majeure that justified the non-performance of the international contractors’ obligations under their contracts.

Contracts Signed with the Libyan Government

Article No. 147 of the Libyan Civil Code states that a contract that is signed and is enforceable among the parties shall be the first source of law in any conflict resolution process. Therefore, the terms and conditions set out in the contract will govern the relationship between the parties.

An examination of the terms of the signed contract is the first step in deciding the obligations and rights of the international contractor.  The assumption here is that all contracts which were valid during the Libyan revolution contained a force majeure clause.

Under the Libyan Civil Code

There is no need to dwell in detail on all points of Libyan law related to force majeure, as the Libyan Civil Code recognizes the option of non-performance of an obligation based on the circumstances of force majeure.

Therefore in the case of the Libyan conflict, an international contractor is fully justified not to perform its duties under the Libyan Civil Code.  I reiterate that this is due to the fact that the upheaval caused by the revolution was a direct result of the Qaddafi regime’s decision to use excessive force against peaceful demonstrators.

Under Bilateral Investment Treaties

As of 1 June2011, Libya had entered into 33 bilateral investment agreements with various countries such as Italy, Austria, Morocco, Croatia, Portugal, Switzerland, Belgium, Luxembourg and France.  The aim of these treaties is to provide certain guarantees, as stated in each treaty, to investors of both parties to the treaty. It also allows investors from both parties to the treaty to bring claims against the other in international arbitration.

Each investment treaty is tailored, however, and all of them guarantee that in matters relating to the treatment of investments, the investors of each contracting party shall enjoy national treatment and most-favored-nation treatment in the territory of the other party.

It also requires that each contracting party undertake not to adopt any measure of expropriation or nationalization or any other measure having the effect of directly or indirectly dispossessing the investors of the other contracting party of their investments within its territory.

Most importantly, an investment treaty restricts the acts of a contracting party from taking any action to deprive and limit the ownership of investors from the other contracting party.  For example, the treaty signed between Libya and the Belgo-Luxembourg Economic Union states:

“Investors of one Contracting Party whose investments suffer losses owing to war or other armed conflict, revolution, a state of national emergency or revolt in the territory of the other Contracting Party shall be granted by the latter Contracting Party a treatment, as regards restitution, indemnification, compensation or other settlement, at least equal to that which the latter Contracting Party grants to the investors of the most favoured nation.”

In summary, it is clear that the Qaddafi regime triggered the violent acts that rendered normal life impossible in Libya.  This forced international contractors to cease their performance under contracts signed with the Libyan government.  Therefore, international contractors are entitled to claim force majeure as a defense of non-performance.

International contractors may claim compensation due to the fact that the Qaddafi regime was responsible for the force majeure event.  The claim may be granted based on: (i) the contract signed between the Libyan government and the international contractor; (ii) the Libyan Civil Code; and if applicable (iii) a bilateral investment treaty signed between Libya and the country of the international contractor.

This, of course, is only a general guide for seeking compensation as a result of the Libyan conflict.

Source: Libya Herald 

Libya's NOC confirms 'routine' probe into oil contracts with foreign majors

Libya's prosecutor general is reviewing oil contracts with international oil companies concluded by the ousted regime of Moammar Qadhafi as a routine measure, the National Oil Company's marketing director Ahmed Shawki said Monday.

"We don't have any information about actual investigations inside the NOC. We don't have any issues so far with the international oil and gas contracts, and business is going forward," Shawki told Platts by telephone from Tripoli.

He was commenting on a report in the Wall Street Journal that the transitional government in Tripoli and the US Securities and Exchange Commission were investigating the activities of a number of oil companies such as Italy's Eni, the biggest operator in Libya, and France's Total.

The Wall Street Journal in a report Sunday quoted Abdelmajeed Saad, the deputy Libyan prosecutor, as saying that the companies were being investigated for alleged "financial irregularities."

The newspaper cited a March letter from the prosecutor's office to the NOC internal auditor asking him to supply oil company documents. It said the letter mentions oil transactions between NOC and international traders Vitol and Glencore as examples of documents it was seeking. It added that while the probe is focusing on Qadhafi-era contracts, the letter indicates that the request includes activities during the civil war last year.

But Shawki stressed that the work being carried out by the prosecutor general was a routine review of all production-sharing contracts and oil sales contracts as part of the transitional government's commitment to transparency and to make sure there were no irregularities.

"So far, I don't believe NOC has any problems with international oil companies, or contracts signed during the Qadhafi regime," Shawki said.

"As I said before, this is just a routine due diligence work done by the General Prosecutor for financial and contractual irregularities, and nothing more than this," he added.

Shawki said he could not comment about oil sales contracts concluded by the transitional government during the crisis because he was not involved. 

Neither Glencore nor Vitol could be contacted for comment because of the Easter holiday.

However, both Total and Eni have said that they are cooperating with the SEC investigation.

Eni said in a Form 20-F filing to the US SEC last week that on June 20, 2011, it received from the US regulator "a formal judicial request of collection and presentation of documents (subpoena) related to Eni's activities in Libya from 2008 to 2011."

It added that the subpoena "is related to an ongoing investigation without further clarifications nor specific alleged violations in connection to 'certain illicit payments to Libyan officials,' possibly violating the US Foreign Corruption Practice Act." The company had further received a request at the end of December 2011 for collection of further documentation aimed at integrating the previous subpoena, it said.

"Eni is fully cooperating with the US SEC," it said.

Total also referred to an investigation in similar filing to the US SEC.

"In June 2011, the US SEC issued to certain companies, including, among others, Total, a formal request for information related to their operations in Libya. Total is cooperating with this non-public investigation," the French major said without elaborating further.

The investigation comes at a crucial time for the new Libyan leaders as they try to grapple with a surge in violence in the aftermath of the revolution, which ended in October with Qadhafi's ouster and death. 

It also comes as Libya, an OPEC oil producers and major exporter to Europe, is ramping up its oil production, currently estimated at 1.4 million b/d, just short of a pre-crisis level of 1.7 million b/d.

Source: Platts