Libya's internationally recognised government said on Tuesday that any sales of the country's oil should be arranged through a state firm based in Benghazi under its leadership to prevent fraud. If implemented, the decision would escalate a battle for control that is still raging, four years after the ousting of Muammar Gaddafi, between the official government based in the east and a rival administration in Tripoli. Oil exports worth several hundreds of millions of dollars each month have up to now been routed through state-run National Oil Corp (NOC) based in Tripoli, which is under effective control of the rival government. "The government confirms that any contracting or sale outside the legal framework represented by National Oil Corp headed by Mabrouk Bou Seif and based in Benghazi is considered a violation," the official government of Prime Minister Abdullah al-Thinni said in a statement. An official in Thinni's office said the statement came in response to a fraud attempt by a person in Tripoli who had offered Libyan crude to a firm in the United Arab Emirates. He said the person had offered the crude in the name of NOC Tripoli and Thinni's government. Last week, the rival Tripoli-based parliament had accused guards loyal to Thinni controlling the eastern port of Es Sider of having tried to sell oil outside NOC's official channels. The port guards have denied this. Reuters was unable to reach officials at NOC in Tripoli which has said it wanted to stay out of the conflict threatening to tear apart Libya. It would be difficult for the eastern NOC to change a payment system in place for many years. Thinni has appointed Bou Seif as head of NOC to be based in Benghazi. But the firm is not operational there because the city is still a war zone between Thinni's forces and Islamist militants. A Libyan entrepreneur said Thinni's government wanted to alert markets to the fraud attempt but would probably not alter the existing payment system. He said NOC had been technically been moved to Benghazi by the previous parliament though in reality it was run from Tripoli. The central bank has kept most oil revenues under lock, paying out only public salaries and essential subsidies in a bid to stay out of the conflict. http://english.ahram.org.eg/News/125488.aspx
