Libya’s NOC inks deal with French Artelia for new Benghazi offices

NOC did not say when the complex would be built.

The buildings will include offices for other oil companies and a branch of Libya’s central bank, as well as a hotel complex and a conference centre, NOC said in a statement.

It said the deal had been signed by NOC Chairman Mustafa Sanalla and Artelia executive director Alberto Romeo on Friday, and that funding would come from commercial banks. There were no details on the cost of the project.

Most of OPEC member Libya’s oil resources lie in the east of the country, but former leader Muammar Gaddafi moved NOC to Tripoli and starved the eastern region of investment.

Benghazi now wants greater influence but parts of the city are in ruins after more than three years of fighting linked to a broader conflict that developed in Libya after the country’s 2011 uprising.

Rival factions based in Tripoli and the east have vied for power over the past four years, with some groups in the east making unsuccessful attempts to sell oil independently of Tripoli.

Libya’s oil production, which was crippled by conflict and blockades after 2013, has partially recovered to more than one million barrels per day (bpd) last year.

The NOC recently announced it would organise an oil and gas conference in Benghazi in October.