Based on the National Oil Corporation’s keenness to follow up the work of its departments, and emphasizing the principle of transparency and the effective role of internal administrative control in improving the performance of the National Oil Corporation.
On Sunday morning, August 29, 2021, a meeting was held at NOC headquarters in Tripoli between the Board of Directors of the National Oil Corporation, general managers and directors of departments and offices, headed by Chairman Mustafa Sanalla, and in presence of Members of the Board of Directors Abulgasem Shengeer and Jadalla Al-Awkali, general managers, department managers, some financial, legal and technical advisors at the National Oil Corporation, in addition to the general manager of the National Oil Corporation Benghazi Branch.
The Chairman of the Board, Mr. Mustafa Sanalla, began the meeting by welcoming the attendees, appreciating their attendance and the presence of the General Manager of the National Oil Corporation’s branch in Benghazi, Dr. Khaled Al-Khafifi. He expressed his happiness with the unity and interdependence of all the departments of the National Oil Corporation and their continuous communication with its companies to complete all the sector’s work in a transparent and professional manner to support the economy of the Libyan state stressing that the National Oil Corporation, despite all circumstances, has always been and will remain, God willing, the main reason for Libya’s unity and stability and the main and only supporter of its economy.
He also explained that the National Oil Corporation has followed up the epidemiological situation of the Corona pandemic since the beginning of the spread of the virus through the Department of Health, Safety and Environment and worked to implement precautionary measures in all its locations to reduce them and ensure the safety of all workers in the oil sector. It also worked in coordination with the Oil Clinic, the Ministry of Health and the National Center for Disease Control and Prevention to provide vaccines to reduce its spread.
During the meeting, Manager of Health, Safety and Environment Department, Khaled Abu Khatwa, presented an overview of the epidemiological situation within the oil sector, and stressed that the department has been following and monitoring developments in the epidemiological situation in the world, in Libya in particular and the sector since the beginning of the pandemic until its spread in the world, and that it worked to create communication with the competent health channels in Libya, noting that the Department of Health, Safety and Environment is in constant and continuous communication with the oil companies, bodies and centers affiliated with NOC and that it has conducted inspection tours of all oil sites, based on the instructions of the Chairman of the Board of Directors, and to ensure the provision of all prevention requirements and to implement precautionary and preventive measures to contain the spread of the virus.
Mr. Abu Khattwa also reviewed the epidemiological data for workers in the oil sector according to the results of the report issued on August 28, 2021, which showed that the cumulative cases at the level of the oil sector reached 2337 cases, 336 active cases, 1942 cases of recovery, and 59 deaths. In addition, 1,416 recipients of the vaccine were registered, noting that the Department is working to raise the level of safety at all NOC premises.
For his part, Chairman Mustafa Sanalla praised the active role played by the Health, Safety and Environment Department, and the efforts made by the department Manager and all its employees to reduce accidents to a minimum, as well as for their efforts to complete a number of courses in coordination with Eni, related to “safety of operations”, which is being held for the first time in the oil sector in Libya.
During the meeting, the activities of the various departments and the most important difficulties and problems encountered in their work were discussed in the absence of approved budgets for NOC and its companies. The proposals and training plans for the employees of NOC and its companies were also discussed. The prominent role played by the General Department for Human Resources Development was mentioned as well. General Manager of NOC Human Resources Department, Mr. Muhammad Abu Laaj, said that the General Department had put in place the most appropriate plans to develop and raise the efficiency of all employees in the oil sector through coordination with consulting firms including universities, institutes and training centers in developed countries such as the United Kingdom, the United States and Canada to ensure the quality of the scientific and technical outcome that would be acquired by the oil sector trainees. The meeting also included extensive and comprehensive discussions about the possibility of benefiting from the agreements concluded with partner companies in the field of training.
During his speech, Mr. Abulgasem Shengeer, Member of the Board of Directors for Exploration and Production at NOC, pointed out the importance of all relevant departments at NOC, in addition to its supporting departments, follow up technical reports with the sector companies, the departments of international marketing, inspection and measurement related to important projects, follow-up and review, and continuous communication with the sector companies through technical meetings that are held twice a year, as they were recently postponed due to the epidemiological situation. He also recommended the need to focus on what comes from the recommendations of specialists and experts in the sector in these meetings to address and overcome all the obstacles they face in implementing vital projects. He indicated that the scarcity of budgets needed to complete them, led to a slow implementation of the necessary drilling operations to increase production rates. Mr. Shengeer concluded his speech with the need to work and coordinate between all the concerned departments on a continuous and constant basis and to commit to attending technical meetings and engaging in constructive discussions that would remove obstacles and move forward to achieve the ambitious goals of the National Oil Corporation to rotate and increase production.
The Chairman and Members of the Board of Directors stressed the importance of working as a team in order to overcome difficulties and remove bottlenecks. They also thanked all the Managers of departments and all employees of NOC, without exception, for their tireless work, tremendous efforts, and their keenness all the time to give priority to the interests of the country and the oil sector
At the end of the meeting, Chairman of the Board of Directors, Mr. Mustafa Sanalla, reiterated his thanks and appreciation to the attendees and to all NOC and its subsidiaries employees for their valuable efforts and fruitful work under the exceptional circumstances that Libya is going through and the spread of the Corona virus, stressing that NOC is one of the most prestigious institutions in Libya that faced great challenges and overcame them all, thanks to God, and then thanks to the world around it. Agitators and losers will not deter it from its patriotic message. He added that the agitators and losers would be in the garbage heap of history.
