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Books on Libya
REPUBLICAN REFERENCE
Area (sq.km)
1,759,540
Population
5,499,074
Capital
Tripoli
Currency
Libyan dinar
Leader
Col Mu'amar al-Qadhafi
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Update No: 017 - (30/03/05)
Big Oil is back
As we noted in the past months Libya has witnessed a dramatic increase
in foreign direct investment in 2004. As the table below shows, Libya was the
highest recipient, 20% of the total for the entire continent, of foreign direct
investment (FDI) in Africa in 2004.
FDI TABLE
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Estimated foreign direct
investment in Africa in 2004
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Libya: $4 billion
Angola: $3 billion
Nigeria: $2 billion
South Africa: $1 billion
Rest of Africa: $10 billion
Total: $20 billion (Source: UN)
OIL, Libya Conducts Second Tender
In oil, the Russian Lukoil is bidding at all oil tenders called by the
Libyan government, said company president Vagit Alekperov. The oil fields Lukoil
is bidding for are part of a second tender for 40 contracts to explore and
develop oil and gas prospects. About 120 companies, including currently active
players in Libyan fields ENI, Total and BP have offered bids along with 17
American companies including ConocoPhillips, ChevronTexaco, Apache and Marathon
Oil. The US Occidental Petroleum received the biggest number of contracts, but
other successful bidders included Amerada Hess and ChevronTexaco of the United
States, Australia's Woodside Petroleum, Algeria's Sonatrach, a consortium of Oil
India Ltd and India Oil Corp., and Brazil's Petroleo Brasileiro/Petrobras. Libya
wants to feature more national content in its oil industry and plans to change
terms for the next round of oil exploration bids to boost incentives for firms
that employ locals and are involved in the downstream oil and gas sector, the
oil minister Fathi Bin Shatwan. ear to be simple but substantial," Fathi
Bin Shatwan told.
Libya remains a daunting business investment prospect, but its oil resources
could yield substantial gains for those willing to take the risk. Much of the
risk remains tied in issues of governance and administration, and while there is
little to suggest that Libya will reverse its policy of openness toward the
West, its ambitions to develop sectors of the economy beyond oil are still
largely unworkable. Libya will have to make substantial changes in its
administration to maximize FDI and increase attractiveness to foreign investors.
Nevertheless, Libya will have in the coming weeks, the opportunity to
demonstrate to the outside world that the image of openness its government, and
particularly the Prime Minister Shukry Ghanem and Col. Qadhafi's son
Seif-ul-Islam, have been promoting is backed by administrative and legal
substance. There has been much pressure on Libya to deal fairly with the
question of the appeal hearing in Libya's Supreme Court against the death
sentences passed on five Bulgarian nurses, and one Palestinian doctor, for
allegedly infecting with AIDS more than 400 Libyan children. Libya's ability and
willingness to take the outmost care in this issue will serve as a test, a trial
within the 'trial' of sorts, which could significantly reduce the intangible
risks of doing business there and attract more widespread and diversified
investment.
On Tuesday, March 29, a five-member panel of the Supreme Cassation
Court of Libya will convene to hear the case. The Court will have two months to
deliberate and deliver a verdict. The Bulgarians' lawyers Plamen Yalnuzov, Hari
Haralampiev, Georgi Gatev and their Libyan colleague will visit the Bulgarian
nurses at Judeyda prison on Monday.
In May 2004 the five Bulgarian nurses and Palestinian doctor were found guilty
of having caused the death of 40 children and of infecting more than 400 others
with HIV at a Benghazi hospital. They were sentenced to death by firing squad,
and though the case clearly did not impede companies from investing in Libyan
oil, the sentence has doubtless hampered Libya's efforts to recover ties with
the West after decades of isolation. One of the main problems with the trial, is
that the verdicts were based on suspect confessions, which many believe, and the
nurses themselves have indicated, were extracted under torture. Bulgarian
authorities and lawyers, who are familiar with the case and are so certain of
the innocence of the nurses that they have ruled out paying any indemnities to
Libya, which would be tantamount to acknowledging that its medical workers were
guilty. The medical team has already been in jail for 5 years and there are
fears that, even if the death sentences are commuted by the Supreme Court, the
issue may be dragged in the courts for another 3 years. The United States, which
has been moving ever closer to Libya and has announced that its diplomats in
Tripoli will be moving to an official facility by the summer (they are working
from a Tripoli hotel now), have taken up the Bulgarian nurses' case. Secretary
of State Condoleezza Rice said that her government would do everything it could
to secure the release of the nurses.
Lost in Translation?
The fact that US soldiers killed a Bulgarian army officer in Iraq
through 'friendly fire' suggests they will likely try hard, as that incident did
not play well with most Bulgarians, who oppose their government's involvement in
support of the United States in Iraq. Secretary Rice's intervention came as Col.
Qadhafi's statements on the matter were apparently misinterpreted by the press.
World media reported on Wednesday that the Libyan leader stated he would not
release the Bulgarian nurses on the death row in Libya. "Everyone from the
West comes to Libya, and says to me release the Bulgarian nurses. This means
that our children died and this was not considered as important," Qaddafi
told an Arab League summit in Algiers. "I swear to God I will not release
them," he was cited as saying. However, just a day later Tripoli officially
denied that adamant declaration by Qaddafi and Bulgaria's foreign ministry
issued a statement saying the speech, as reported by international news
agencies, was not translated properly. The correct translation of Muammar Al-Qadhafi's
words are, "In the name of God, officials from the West come to Libya and
tell me "we want to take them with us. Release them", is in fact what
Qadhafi said, according to the Libyan Embassy in Sofia. Whether the suggestion
that the actual meaning of Qadhafi's words were lost in translation is true,
seems irrelevant now. The important thing is that Col. Qadhafi is well aware
that the world is watching Libya's handling of the trial. For its part, the
Bulgarian government is not openly optimistic about the outcome of the trial.
Justice Minister Anton Stankov said he does not advise people to maintain high
expectations for the possible outcome of the Bulgarian medics case scheduled for
appeals hearing on Tuesday. Seif el-Islam Gadhafi, the son of Libyan leader, who
has been actively promoting Libya's new image in hopes of attracting business
and fostering better relations with the rest of the world, had previously said
he expected the appeals court might change the death sentence to a prison term.
More to the point, in Tuesday's hearing, lawyers for the defendants have
provided the appeals court with new evidence, including claims that the
infection occurred before the nurses arrived in Libya. During the trial last
year, Dr. Luc Montagnier, the French co-discoverer of the AIDS virus, testified
that he believed the children were infected in 1997 - more than a year before
the Bulgarians were hired implying that poor hygiene and not the medics'
incompetence were to blame for the children contracting the disease. The Libyan
court said it would rule the case on May 31. The ruling date gives Bulgaria some
additional 'negotiation time'. Indeed, Al-Qadhafi invited Bulgaria's President
Georgi Parvanov on an official visit to Libya through the Libyan ambassador in
Sofia one day after the 'lost in translation' incident took place. This suggests
that there is a willingness to discuss the case of the nurses, if not the
Palestinian doctor, found guilty of having infected more than 400 children, some
40 of which have already died with HIV at a Benghazi hospital, at the highest
level.
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