Eric Watkins
OGJ Oil Diplomacy Editor
LOS ANGELES, Feb. 16 -- ExxonMobil Corp., dismissing the latest statements by Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi, said it is not concerned about remarks threatening to nationalize the Arab country's oil industry.
Russell Bellis, ExxonMobil exploration director for Europe, the Middle East, and North Africa, said he had no concerns over the threats and that the US firm could begin drilling for oil and gas in Libya this year.
In March 2008, Libya's National Oil Corp. signed an exploration and production-sharing agreement with ExxonMobil for offshore Area 21. Under the agreement, ExxonMobil is committed to shooting 4,000 km of 2D seismic, 2,000 sq km of 3D seismic, and the drilling of one exploration well.
Gadhafi's remarks were broadcast Feb. 14 by the state-run Great Jamahiriyah TV, which aired a recording of a meeting between the Libyan leader along with secretaries and members of Libyan peoples' committees.
Among other views concerning the redistribution of wealth in his country, Qadhafi discussed oil revenue, saying it needed to be looked after carefully, being the country's only resource.
He said oil is the property of the people of Libya and Algeria, while in other oil-producing countries, the oil is owned by the kings and other leaders, who took most of the revenue, giving very little back to the people.
Qadhafi added that the increase of oil prices "made me think that oil revenue should be given to the people." However, he said, "As soon as we began to think about this, oil prices plummeted to as little as $30/bbl.
Avoiding corruption
The Libyan leader went on to discuss corruption, where some people received more money than others, when all should have had equal amounts of money as all income came from oil revenue.
He said in Libya on the other hand, oil revenue was in the hands of its people, and he invited anyone in the world to come to Libya and check for themselves whether that was true or not.
He also discussed possible systems for distributing oil wealth among the people, whether each person would get a specific amount of money regardless of the price of oil, or whether they should receive more money when prices go up and less when they go down.
Qadhafi then read out some possible suggestions for ways to redistribute oil revenue.
In one example, he said, people could receive 3,000 Libyan dinars/month (around $2,300), but then would be responsible for everything in their lives, paying higher bills with no government subsidies, with no free health care or education.
These comments echoed earlier remarks by the Libyan leader during a televised address at Georgetown University in Washington, DC. "Oil-exporting countries may look to nationalization because of the rapidly declining prices," the Libyan leader said (OGJ Online, Feb. 2, 2009).
Contact Eric Watkins at [email protected].
