Considering the political situation in Libya these days, eastern Libyan authorities are feeling emboldened about their own grip over power in their territories and want to carry out more ambitious development projects to project power.
However, the geopolitical competition playing out in Libya is also leading to rampant disinformation campaigns and false news targeting Libya’s energy sector.
There have been a number of unconfirmed reports emerging regarding non-Western International Oil Corporations being in direct contact with Benghazi-based authorities to develop the region’s vast energy resources.
A closer look
In recent months, both the Government of National Stability (GNS) and Libyan National Army (LNA) have displayed growing confidence in their ability to not only provide security to eastern Libya but also focus on development opportunities.
For instance, the LNA’s development portfolio has gradually coalesced under Belgasim Haftar’s Development and Reconstruction Fund, and — according to the Central Bank of Libya (CBL) in Tripoli — eastern authorities have reportedly pursued local printing of currency, although the claim remains difficult to verify.
Meanwhile, eastern Libyan authorities are enjoying a privileged relationship with National Oil Corporation (NOC) Chairman Farhat Bengdara and growing ties with CBL Governor Sadiq al-Kabir. Earlier this month, the tenth anniversary of Operation Dignity (al-Karama) demonstrated the LNA Commander-in-Chief’s confidence in his grip over power.
In many ways, the eastern authorities are increasingly acting as a full-fledged government seeking autonomy from Tripoli, thus governing its territories as a quasi-sovereign state per se.
This stance is further validated by the Russian government’s strategy in Libya, which has been to view the country as a de facto divided federation of states, thus enabling Moscow to engage with the Government of National Unity (GNU) and GNS as fully separate entities.
In this context, an ambitious goal of the GNS and LNA is to have foreign companies directly sign and implement contracts with them, instead of going through Tripoli.
This is already a reality for infrastructure projects, but the jackpot would be for IOCs to directly invest in Libya through eastern authorities, thus enabling the latter to have greater control over finances or at least direct the development of projects in their own territories.
This is easier said than done, and the energy sector is much more difficult to penetrate by the GNS and the LNA as the previous years have proven, given the interconnectedness of Libya’s energy system with global energy markets.
Even if the eastern authorities want to achieve such a reality, it is not an easy one to achieve and the NOC under Bengdara would be extremely careful not to face sanctions or boycott by key Western partners and allies. However, recent developments in eastern Libya have led to rampant disinformation and a series of unfounded reports targeting Libya’s energy sector.
