Shokri Ghanem is back at the top of the NOC, after resigning a few weeks ago. (image: arabianoilandgas.com)

Ending weeks of uncertainty about its oil industry’s direction, Libya has reappointed Shokri Ghanem, who resigned as head of the National Oil Company just weeks ago, back to the position he held for years. As reported by the Wall Street Journal on Monday, a top Libyan government official said that Ghanem was back in the NOC’s corner office, but declined to provide details.

It’s not surprising for a dictatorship, but definitive information about Libya’s oil industry has been difficult to come by. For example, just three weeks ago Forbes reported that Ali Mohammed Saleh was appointed head of the NOC. However, today’s Journal article states that no permanent chairman was appointed after Ghanem stepped down—just an acting chair named Ali El Sogher. The two articles even disagree about how much oil Libya pumps: Forbes claims 1.7 million barrels per day, while the Journal gives the number at 1.55 million, or around 9 percent less.

Still, one thing appears to be clear: Ghanem’s short-lived departure occurred in the context of a power struggle between conservative and reformist forces. Ghanem, with plenty of international experience, had been the champion of those who wanted to open up Libya to outside investors, while Saleh represented those who wanted to a take a cautious, slow approach to allowing international involvement in Libya’s oil industry.

With Africa’s largest proven oil reserves, Libya is an important oil producer and OPEC member. However, years of international sanctions and erratic rule have left the nation’s all-important oil sector as a perennial underperformer, consistently missing its production quotas.

Whether Ghanem’s reappointment helps begin to reverse that—and even whether it lasts!—remain to be seen.

The Libyan National Oil Corp.'s logo. (image: arabmarines.homestead.com)

The Associated Press reported on Thursday that a shakeup has occurred at Libya’s national oil company.

Libya’s General People’s Committee named Ali Mohammed Saleh as the new chief of the country’s National Oil Corp. This move signals the end of a power struggle between old-guard conservatives and open-mined reformers over control of Libya’s oil production. Shukri Ghanem, the man Saleh replaced, is viewed as eager to open the country up to outside investors. However, conservatives want to take a gradual approach to outside investment and managed to depose Ghanem.

Libya has Africa’s largest proven reserves of oil; however, years of sanctions, put in place to punish the government’s support of terrorism, have harmed production efforts. By naming Saleh to the post, it appears that the supply of oil coming from Libya will remain at its current levels, despite its potential and therefore have no effect on global oil prices.

For a complete history of Libya’s oil industry, visit HeatingOil.com’s profile of Libya.