Libya’s NTC rules out new oil contracts before election
Moving in for kill against Gaddafi diehards in Sirte
Libya will not award any further oil contracts until a government is formed after elections, the country’s interim oil and finance minister said yesterday.
“There are no new contracts in this transitory period for Total or for any company,” Ali Tarhuni told reporters on the occasion of a visit to the country by an 80-strong business delegation from France.
“The only government that can give new concessions in oil is an elected government, and that would be after we have a Constitution,” he said.
The NTC is awaiting the fall of fugitive former strongman Muammar Gaddafi’s hometown of Sirte on the Mediterranean coast, before declaring the liberation of Libya and forming a transitional administration ahead of a general election.
NTC forces were looking to move in for the kill against Col Gaddafi diehards in Sirte yesterday after meeting little resistance and taking several key objectives.
A day after seizing Sirte’s police headquarters, the NTC forces were still closing in from the east and west on ever smaller pockets of pro-Gaddafi forces.
Hundreds of NTC combatants in dozens of pickups fired rockets from the west of the Mediterranean city whose seizure will enable the NTC to declare the liberation of Libya and clear the way for an election timetable.
An AFP correspondent said Sirte’s main square and entire waterfront were under NTC control, along with its fortress-like conference centre, university campus and main hospital, all of which the fighters seized on Sunday.
“All our lines are now in place; the area is completely surrounded,” said NTC commander Zubayr Bakush.
Farther east, a group of fighters threw petrol on a billboard of Col Gaddafi as others cheered and fired into the air with cries of “Alla hu akbar” (God is greatest) blasting from a van loudspeaker.