Malta eyes cheap Libyan oil, after Qatari talks

NTC undersecretary for oil and gas suggests joint meeting for Maltese technical team.

7 April 2012, 12:00am
by Matthew Vella

1 min read

Tonio Fenech at the recent Libya forum held in Malta.

Finance Minister Tonio Fenech has been in discussions with the Libyan undersecretary at the ministry of oil and gas, Umar Shakmak, over Malta's hopes of obtaining assured supplies of Libyan oil and gas products on favourable terms, the English-language Libyan Herald has reported.

Shakmak was quoted in the NTC website suggesting during a joint meeting that a Maltese technical team be appointed to discuss the matter with specialists from the Libya National Oil Corporation.

"The two men are reported to have discussed other aspects of joint cooperation between Libya and Malta and ways of strengthening them," the Libyan Herald reported.

In February, Libya said it would review a request by the Jordanians to assure their oil and petroleum product needs at preferential prices.

Fenech will lead a Malta Enterprise delegation to Libya between April 16 and 19. It will, however, concentrate on ports and maritime services.

At the end of February, Fench told a business forum on Libya that Malta identified itself strongly with Libya and wanted to play a strong role in its future.

MaltaToday revealed that Tonio Fenech also held meetings in Doha with Qatar's minister for energy and industry Mohamed bin Saleh al-Sada.

The meeting - held in the presence of Frank Galea, Malta's newly-appointed ambassador to the Gulf States - was held at the Qatar Petroleum headquarters and was also attended by senior officials of QP and Qatar Petroleum International.

Fenech said that "government acknowledged that the important thing was to find an alternative solution to weathering this temporary spike in oil prices."

He said that government's ultimate priority was to safeguard employment, industry and businesses.

Matthew Vella, a freelance journalist at MaltaToday, was formerly executive editor at Malt...

Joseph MELI •

These so-called and self-appointed government"ministers" we are dealing with who elected or voted for them into office.We stopped dealing with Libya and applied sanctions because it was ruled by an undemocratice and unelected regime and the people were being denied fundamental human rights and had no say in how their country was being run.So what's changed now?

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Qed toqrob l-elezzjoni u jridu jaraw minfejn ser jakkwistaw xi ftit ghalf halli jkunu jistghu jingannaw lill-poplu . Election is getting near and they are trying to get something so they can be in a position to shower some pepper on the electorate .

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The fact remains that the out of EUR20 you put in the tank, 11.50 is a direct tax, then the government will tax the service station and all the employees at that station - and enemalta gets taxes and all its employees are taxes - not to mention the massive corruption and fraud at enemalta - which must ultimately be paid for by the tax payers. So in the end - you are lucky if you drive off with 50c worth of fuel out of those EUR20. We could be getting our oil for free and it will still not fix the problem - which is that of MASSIVE corruption by a government of thieves.

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"At the end of February, Fench told a business forum on Libya that Malta identified itself strongly with Libya and wanted to play a strong role in its future" I am sure the Libyans believe this and will be looking foward but to it but dealing with a labour government a true friend in the past and the present.

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Min imaqdar irrid jixtri. Kemm hu iebes tillaq il-bzieq li kont bzat kontra ghajrek.

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Mela mghadhomx tal habba-ziz issa il Libjani??