LIBYA - Profile - Abdullah Salem Al-Badri.

The Chairman of NOC and its Governing Council, Badri took up this position in March 2004 from Abdel Hafiz Mahmoud Zlitni. A prominent technocrat, Dr. Zlitni became chairman of NOC's governing council on Oct. 1, 2001. Until then the interim head of NOC was Ahmad Abdel Karim Ahmad, who on Oct. 1, 2001 was made chairman of Oilinvest but was recently dismissed from that position. Ahmad had been acting chairman of NOC since Oct. 1, 2000, when he took over from Badri.

Badri was chairman of NOC and its governing council as well as OPEC president until Oct. 1, 2002, when he was made assistant secretary general (deputy PM) for services related to health, education and transportation. From November 1992 until March 1, 2000, Badri was secretary (minister) for energy. But that huge portfolio, which included the petroleum and electricity sectors, was abolished in March 2000, only to be revived in March 2004.

Soon after taking over at NOC Badri raised NOC's stake in Oilinvest to 70%, from 45%, thus reducing the stakes of the Libyan Arab Foreign Bank (LAFB) and the Libyan Arab Foreign Investment Co. (Lafico) to 15% each. He removed Omar Massoud from the post of chairman at Tamoil, the main operating unit of Oilinvest, and put in this place Mahmoud Naas. He effected the change despite the fact that Massoud was well connected in Tripoli.

Oilinvest, which has more than 50 units, is expanding in Africa and considering a stake in Nigeria's oil refining sector. Badri is considering a stake in Hellenic Petroleum, which is partly owned by the Greek government. Badri is also trying to boost the E&P operations of Oilinvest's upstream affiliate, Odex Exploration in which it holds 46%. Its partners in the latter company are UK-based Soco Int'l (34%) and Gazprombank of Russia (20%). Oilinvest in 2004 bought 50 service stations in Eritrea from Shell. Its African retail portfolio includes outlets in Egypt (50), Mali (2), Chad (5), Niger (21) and Burkino Faso (8). Another possibility for the Oilinvest group is a stake in Egypt's 100,000 b/d Midor export refinery (see profile of Oilinvest's operations in DT No. 3).

Badri had Ahmad Abdel Karim Ahmad dismissed from the post of Oilinvest chairman in May this year and replaced by Libya's OPEC Governor Hammouda Al-Aswad. That was mainly because Ahmad had caused the group considerable losses from trading in energy derivatives markets in Europe. The more immediate cause was his sponsorship deal with the Italian football club Juventus, which he concluded without proper clearance from Tripoli.

It is said that Ahmad had made the Juventus deal at the request of Sa'di Al-Qadhafi who is one of the Libyan ruler's favourite sons keen on raising his country's profile in football. Sa'di last May was quoted as saying there had been problems at Tamoil and as suggesting that negotiations were taking place with Italian companies to sell a major stake in this key Oilinvest unit. Rumours that Sa'di was acting as Tamoil's representative in Italy were recently dismissed by a Libyan source in a talk with APS.

On daily basis, the petroleum sector is run by NOC's governing council. Parallel to this are three popular committees, of which the members collectively are more powerful than their chairman. These committees are in charge of relations with the foreign E&P partners of NOC, exploration and the downstream sector (oil refining, domestic oil distribution and petrochemicals, etc).