By Yousef Saba and Ahmad Ghaddar
DUBAI/LONDON- A Libyan company linked to the powerful faction that controls eastern Libya has exported oil worth at least $600 million since May, marking an end to the National Oil Corporation’s monopoly on exports, according to shipping records and UN experts.
The shipments by the little-known Arkenu Oil Company, which was set up in 2023, are the first by a private Libyan company and mean some of the country’s oil revenue is likely being channelled away from the Central Bank of Libya.
Ever since the fall of Muammar Gaddafi in 2011, Libya has been riven by disputes between armed factions and it is largely split, with an internationally recognized government based in Tripoli in the west and a rival administration in the east, which is controlled by the forces of military commander Khalifa Haftar.
The disputes have often centered on the distribution of oil revenue by the central bank in Tripoli. Haftar’s forces, which control most of Libya’s oilfields, have periodically shut down production or exports, most recently in August last year, to ensure money continues to flow east.
Reuters was unable to determine who owns Arkenu. However, a UN panel of experts said in a Dec. 13 report to the Security Council that Arkenu was indirectly controlled by Saddam Haftar, one of Khalifa Haftar’s sons.
“This is a striking precedent that reflects the growing influence of armed actors over the oil sector,” said Charles Cater, director of investigations at The Sentry, an international investigative and policy group.
Reuters also reviewed more than two dozen documents, including bills of lading, government decisions and oil company letters for this article, as well as interviewing diplomatic and trading sources and Libya experts.
According to its website and LinkedIn profile, Arkenu is headquartered in Benghazi, a Mediterranean port city in eastern Libya with an oil terminal under the control of Haftar’s forces.
The company was set up in early 2023 by former employees of the state-owned National Oil Corporation (NOC), according to two of the sources.
