Reply #25: Most of the oil is in rebel held land. The country will probably be split into two soon

[Catherina]

The rebels promised to generously reward their friends unlike Gaddafi, who a year ago, talked about nationalizing even more of Libya's gas and oil interests.

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One of last year’s biggest shocks was Gaddafi’s suggestion to nationalize the country’s oil and gas interests, a consideration that seemed to echo the early days of the Libyan revolution when the industry was partially nationalized. These words set the stage for the National Oil Corp. to renegotiate long-term contracts in Libya’s favor with major oil companies operating in the country, such as Italy’s ENI, the United States’ Occidental, PetroCanada, France’s Total and Spain’s Repsol, St John added.

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Within the Libyan government there is resistance to encouraging more foreign investment in the oil market, but Ghanem’s argument is the country cannot go it alone, said Henderson. The North African country sorely needs foreign investors but wants them to view such requests as a partnership rather than as an invitation to take over sectors of the economy, he explained.

“The difficult challenge is at home, Arab nationalism is a very strong thing,” Henderson told OilPrice.com “Foreign investors are seen as diminishing Arab nationalism and therefore are resisted ideologically. And from a foreign investor’s point of view, selling the notion to your shareholders that you can get a good agreement with an apparent eccentric like Col. Gaddafi is questionable.”

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http://www.businessinsider.com/libya-courts-oil-and-gas-investors-but-faces-a-tough-sell-following-recent-government-fiascos-2010-2

See this thread: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=439x697952