“Give it back to Benghazi,” cried out oil engineer Jumaa Mshiti with a hoarse voice at a sit-in at the Tahrir Square in Benghazi on February 15, demanding authorities retransfer the National Oil Company (NOC) from its current headquarters in Tripoli to Benghazi. Local activists and civil society organizations staged the sit-in to demand the return of economic institutions they described as stolen, including NOC, by March 30, 2013.

“Give it back to Benghazi,” cried out oil engineer Jumaa Mshiti with a hoarse voice at a sit-in at the Tahrir Square in Benghazi on February 15, demanding authorities retransfer the National Oil Company (NOC) from its current headquarters in Tripoli to Benghazi. Local activists and civil society organizations staged the sit-in to demand the return of economic institutions they described as stolen, including NOC, by March 30, 2013.

NOC, parent company of 11 other oil companies in Libya, had been founded in 1970 before being moved to Tripoli at the beginning of Gaddafi’s reign.

Forming a security and political challenge, this February 15 Ali Zeidan’s government had met with organizers and, during a meeting with Benghazi Local Council, promised to return these institutions, including NOC. The government however requested more time for consultation and technical preparation so as to be under an integrated strategy that would include implementation mechanisms and a timetable.

Zeidan’s promise was welcomed by the local council where its official spokesman, Osama Sharif, said the preparation of such a decision was inevitable; however, the attendees had specified a stipulation that the decision should be issued first, while the implementation mechanisms and the timetable could be defined in a later stage.

Numerous reasons

The talk about the returning of government institutions from the capital to their place of foundation started with the fall of Gaddafi’s regime for reasons some believe to be legal, considering that Gaddafi came to power through a coup and thus his transferring of the institutions was a coup against legitimacy, which is demanded by former head of the Oil and Gas Worker Union (OGWU) Steering Committee, Yusuf Ghariani, who said: “We want the return of legitimacy. NOC was founded by virtue of decision no. 13 of 1968 under the name of the “Libyan General Institution of Petroleum” in Benghazi; this is why it should return to Benghazi.”

“When NOC returns to Benghazi, companies will come too, stimulating the economy and trade in the city, providing jobs to the youth and reducing the pressure put on the capital since 28% of the Libyans live in Tripoli, which has 262 government institutions,” Ghariani explained.

Others deem it a realization of equity and justice. “Determining the foundation place of institutions, especially prior to Gaddafi, was not made arbitrarily,” said Osama Sharif, “rather, it was based on systematic visions and studies to support development of these areas, create opportunities for people and make them feel that the state was for everyone, not for a specific region.”

While many oil sector employees complain about complex administrative procedures and the long distance from the headquarters of their companies in Tripoli, Oil Undersecretary, Omar Shakmak, said he understood the request to open a branch of NOC in Benghazi. “All the Libyans working in the field of oil and other sectors have to come to the headquarters of their relevant companies in Tripoli, which is unfair,” he said.

Raising the ceiling of demands

After the toppling of Gaddafi, the Ministry of Oil successively issued decisions 35, 51, 61 and finally 100 to open an NOC branch in Benghazi in an attempt to reach a compromise that might satisfy those demanding NOC’s full return.

Due to sit-ins staged by OGWU members in Benghazi to reject the opening of an NOC branch, considering it as dividing the NOC, none of the decisions were enforced, including decision no. 100, which was revoked by former Oil Minister Abdulrahman Ben Yezza on the October 10, 2012, only a few days after issuing it, on the pretext of having linguistic errors. Ghariani however said, “The decision was withdrawn because the minister was put under pressure by 25 employees of NOC, who demonstrated in Tripoli against the decision.”

This, according to Ghariani, has made the claimants insist on NOC’s full return. “The street has intervened and raised the ceiling,” he said.

It is the capital

Calling Benghazi an economic capital by the dissolved Transitional Council made such claims more insistent. “Is it possible that Benghazi is an economic capital but with no economic institutions?” wondered Mshiti. “There is no geographical, political or legal reason that prevents NOC’s return to Benghazi,” he added.

On the other hand, Buthaina Qnewa, an employee at the Tripoli-based German Wintershall Libya oil company has a different opinion. “All the state facilities should open branches at all the Libyan cities, and NOC should stay in Tripoli because it is the capital,” she said.

For his part, NOC Chairman, Nori Balrouine, said, “Transferring NOC or opening a new branch means nothing.  It is the resulting economic activity that counts.”

“When a company opens its main departments or branches in Benghazi, it contributes to boosting the economic activity there, while opening a branch and appointing 100 or 200 employees is nothing. The whole point is in the resulting activity,” he explained.

The street leads

Oil specialists propose the city of Ajdabiya (150 kilometers west of Benghazi) as a proper headquarters for NOC. This city lies between the two oil-exporting ports of Zueitina and Cyrenaica, and 250 kilometers away from its southern gate, thousands of oil barrels are extracted each day, which makes the lines that provide spare parts and supplies closer and makes it easier for oil companies to follow-up their oil operations.

“First, restore legitimacy,” Ghariani insisted, “even though Benghazi is an economic capital, NOC is not based there.”

While observers fear that claimants may keep oil pumping in some fields as a type of pressure, especially after they made many threats, Ghariani said this was unlikely to happen. “Oil is owned by no one person, but by all Libyans. We do not demand NOC transfer today or tomorrow; if the General National Congress and the government have a bona fide intention, it can be transferred two or three years later. However, if we reach a dead end, we will resort to this solution. Besides, it is the street which leads us, not the other way round.”