US official says talks with Libya don't signal end of sanctions

Maureen Lorenzetti
OGJ Online

WASHINGTON, DC, Jan. 16 -- Recent talks between American, British, and Libyan officials do not mean the US is prepared to lift its economic sanctions against the oil-rich country, a US State Department spokesman said Tuesday.

"There is no new initiative or shift in relations here," the spokesman said.

Top diplomats from the US and the UK met with Libyan officials in London on Jan. 10, a follow-up to a similar meeting last October.

Since 1986, the US has prohibited American companies from investing in Libya as a reaction to the PanAm Flight 103 bombing over Scotland. The US says Libya has not met its obligations to compensate victims' families and has not done enough to stop state-supported terrorism.

The spokesman said, "Our policy, and our message on that, have never varied, regardless of the channel or the particular interlocutors: Libya must comply with its United Nations Security Council obligations and put its terrorist past behind it. There can be no shortcuts around these obligations, and we continue to call upon Libya to fulfill those obligations."

When President George W. Bush took office a year ago US companies whose assets had been frozen were optimistic that the new administration might lift sanctions because of signs of more Libyan cooperation with the UN. Congress complicated the picture by passing a renewal of the Iran-Libya Sanctions Act, which seeks to punish foreign companies that invest in either country.

President George W. Bush signed that law this summer and later extended unilateral sanctions for another year.

Following the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, US companies were again optimistic that new Libyan cooperation against terrorism might result in a diplomatic quid pro quo. As yet, none has materialized.

Occidental Petroleum Corp., Marathon Oil Co., and Conoco Inc. have Libyan oil fields. Last year the Libyan government threatened to sell those fields unless US policy changed, but it appears to have backed down from that threat.

Also, the US Office of Foreign Assets Control in December said it would allow geologists from US oil companies to travel to Libya this year to monitor their concessions. Industry officials said production at the fields has collectively fallen to 300,000 b/d.

Contact Maureen Lorenzetti at [email protected]