The Maltese ambassador in Libya never received any communication on fuel smuggling from Libya to Malta through companies licenced for oil services, the Foreign Ministry said today.
It was reacting to a report in the Libya Herald which claimed that the head of the Representatives Economy Committee of Libya, Ali Gatrani, had alerted the Maltese authorities and confirmed the illegality of fuel and gasoline exports from Libya to Malta through companies licenced for ‘oil services.’
The Libya Herald is reporting that Ali Gatrani had sent a letter addressed to the Maltese Ambassador clarifying that Libyan registered companies whose scope is servicing the oil industry in Libya do not extend to export of oil products from Libya.
But a spokesman for the Maltese Foreign Ministry said this is not the case. "The Maltese ambassador never received any communication on this subject," he said.
The Libya Herald quoted Mr Galtrani as saying that companies selling clean or crude oil out of Libya are doing so illegally. “This is illegal under Libyan law and in accordance with UN resolutions. The smuggling negatively affects the Libyan economy and the income from this is used by smugglers to trade in illicit goods such as the drugs and alcohol trade which affects Libya’s security. The illicit gains can also finance terrorism,” the Herald reports.
Mr Gatrani said that trading out of Libya is limited, by law, to the National Oil Corporation. He called on the Maltese authorities to refuse any Libyan documentation presented by smugglers suggesting that their smuggling transactions are a legal trade.
Mr Gatrani confirmed that only the NOC has the right to trade in fuel and that Libyan oil services companies can provide a host of other services permitted by law, but excluding the trade in fuel. Subsidized fuel is intended for domestic Libyan consumers and not for export outside of Libya, he adds.
The Herald recalled how back in 2014, the Libyan Prime Minister of the time, Mr Abdullah Thinni, had called upon the Maltese government to take action against those involved in smuggling fuel from Libya to Malta.
In 2013, two Maltese men were arrested in Libya accused of smuggling thousands of litres of Libyan diesel to Malta. Kevin McManus from Marsascala and Matthew Piscopo from Marsaxlokk, were arrested in two separate instances on boats sailing from Libya towards Malta. The two men were being kept in a prison in Zawia.