At the beginning of the meeting Mr. Chairman of the Board welcomed His Excellency Ambassador Larrache and his accompanying delegation to this visit and indicated that he is proud of the bilateral relations between the two countries in the oil field, stating that the National Oil Corporation is seeking to expand the mutual cooperation horizons in the energy sector.

Mr. Chairman of the Board, Eng. Mustafa Sanalla, gave an overview of the challenges that the oil and gas sector faced during the last period, asserting that the National Oil Corporation and its subsidiaries have exerted huge efforts throughout the blockage period which reflected positively by the rapid return of production rates to their normal levels prevailed before the blockades.

The Chairman of the Board, Eng. Mustafa Sanalla, added: ‘We are happy with our partnership with the Spanish company Repsol and there has been a commercial exchange between Libya and Spain in the oil and its derivatives field that exceeded 7.5 billion dollars during the last three years. The National Oil Corporation wishes to raise the commercial exchange rates in oil and gas field and we appreciate and are thankful for the role that Repsol has been playing through its cooperation with us in capability building and sustainable development aspects.’

Mr. Member of the Board of Directors for Exploration and Production, Abulgasem Shengeer, also pointed out that the Libyan oil sector needs the return of Spanish service companies because of their capability and long expertise in this field in order to meet the requirements of the sector in training and other aspects to develop the Libyan personnel.

For his part, His Excellency Ambassador Larrache congratulated Messrs. Chairman and Members of the Board of Directors of the National Oil Corporation for the rapid return of production to its rates that existed before ceasing oil output commending the role played by the National Oil Corporation in its neutrality and following transparency principle and confirming that he will work on encouraging the Spanish service companies to return to Libya and invest in it.

At the end of the meeting, Mr. Chairman of the Board, Eng. Mustafa Sanalla, asserted to His Excellency the Spanish Ambassador to Libya, that the security and stability of the state of Libya will positively reflect on the security and stability of the Mediterranean Sea region and the European Union.