The Deputy Minister of Oil and Gas Refat Al-Abbar said he wasn’t aware of the letter sent by the Minister Mohammed Oun to the Prime Minister Abdul-Hamid Dbeibah about reshuffling the board of directors of the National Oil Corporation (NOC), saying the step is against his agreement with the Minister.

He said he had agreed with the Minister not to change anything at the NOC without prior consultation and that the current board of directors had been successful over the last few years amid difficult security and economic conditions.

Al-Abbar added that the NOC board of directors remained unified despite all the previous challenges and carried on with exporting the most important source of revenue for Libyans in hard times.

The Minister of Oil and Gas asked the Government of National Unity to form a new board of directors for the NOC and recommended the appointment of Tariq Al-Gatani, as a new Chairman and Al-Abbar his as his deputy.