Mediaboss Marketing

The head of a Libyan legislative body on Tuesday deplored the "return of dictatorship" in neighbouring Tunisia, expressing solidarity with a jailed opposition leader and high-profile critic of President Kais Saied.

Khaled el-Mechri is president of Libya's Tripoli-based High Council of State, which is the equivalent of a senate in the country split between a nominally interim government in Tripoli and an eastern administration backed by military strongman Khalifa Haftar.

In a message on social media, Mechri deplored the detention in Tunisia "of the speaker of the parliament elected by the people, the thinker Rached Ghannouchi, because of an opinion he expressed".

"This absurd development bears witness to the return of dictatorship, of injustice and suppression of free expression in Tunisia," Mechri said. "Ghannouchi, you are not alone."

A Tunisian court on Monday sentenced Ghannouchi to a year in prison on terrorism-related charges after he was earlier accused of calling police officers "tyrants."

Advertisement - Scroll to Continue

His Islamist-inspired Ennahdha party condemned the sentence as "an unjust political verdict."

The case was one of several levied by authorities against Ghannouchi, whose party was the largest in parliament before Saied dissolved the chamber in July 2021 as part of a power grab allowing him to rule by decree.

Ghannouchi was detained and remanded in custody in April after remarks warning that eradicating different viewpoints such as the left or political Islam might lead to a "civil war".

Advertisement - Scroll to Continue

Tunisia was the only democracy to emerge from the Arab Spring uprisings in the region more than a decade ago.

His arrest was the latest against Saied's opponents and drew international concern from the European Union, the United States and Germany.

Saied rejected such criticism as "flagrant interference."

Advertisement - Scroll to Continue

In Libya, which has seen more than a decade of stop-start conflict since the 2011 revolt that toppled strongman Moamer Kadhafi, presidential and legislative elections set for December 2021 have still not taken place.

A rival to the senate which Mechri heads, the House of Representatives, sits in Libya's east.

His declarations risk creating tensions with Tunisia.

Tripoli-based interim Prime Minister Abdelhamid Dbeibah visited Tunis late last year in a move aimed at warming ties with Saied's government.

rb-ezz/fka/it/noc

Visit link:
Libya Official Deplores Jailing Of Tunisian Opposition Leader - Barron's

A group of leading Libyan poultry breeders and egg producers are participating in the USA Poultry and Egg Export Council (USAPEEC) buyers function in Casablanca, Morocco from 14 to 17 May. The visit by the Libyan delegation was coordinated by AmCham Libyas Tripoli-based president, Debbie Hirst.

The purpose of this buyers function is to bring together US poultry exporters and African buyers under one roof so that they have opportunities to meet one to one to discuss, and hopefully, generate business.

The buyers are not only from North Africa but from all of Africa. There will be around 23 US poultry supply companies. In total it is expected that around 100 people at the event. Half of the first day is presentations. The rest of the time and remaining days are purely one-to-one meetings. Each US supplier will have a station. A trade reception will be held on one of the evenings.

See original here:
Libyan poultry breeders and egg producers participate in US ... - Libya Herald

Speaking exclusively to Libya Herald at the Spanish Embassy, Tripoli, Alvaro Bordallo Sainz, Deputy Ambassador, said that since the visit of the Spanish Prime Minister, Pedro Snchez, to Tripoli in June 2021, the Spanish Embassy was re-opened and has been in full operation since. The Embassy carries out activities ranging from political and cultural to trade and visas, he explained.

A constructive partner in building peace and stability for LibyaRegarding the political file, he said the Spanish Embassy seeks to engage with Libyan authorities from all areas of the political spectrum as well as representatives from civil society organisations.

Spain wants to be a constructive partner in building peace and stability for the people of Libya and in that respect, works closely with the rest of the International Community to contribute to a Libyan led political solution that will lead the country to elections that will ultimately fulfil the legitimate democratic aspirations of the Libyan people.

More Spanish companies are expressing interest in investing in LibyaOn trade relations, he said Spain has a trade office in Tripoli, which assists Spanish companies wishing to invest in Libya. Traditionally, Spanish exports to Libya revolve around the areas of construction material, pharmaceutical, foodstuff, equipment, services and agricultural products.

Since the end of the Libyan conflict, more Spanish companies are expressing interest in investing in Libya; there is therefore considerable room for increasing trade and exchanges to the benefit of both countries.

Spain has participated in this years edition of the Tripoli International Fair (TIF) as a first step to facilitate contacts and send a clear sign that Libya is open for business. The Embassy expects that this will result, in time, in more companies exploring the Libyan market. The Embassy has also visited the Libya Food Fair, Misrata Free Zone and the headquarters of the Alsahel Group to further prepare the ground for future investments.

Libyan exports to Spain revolve mainly around oil. Spanish company, Repsol, has been a long-lasting trade partner of Libya with a significant investment in corporate social responsibility projects benefiting local populations.

An ambitious cultural programmeSince June 2022, the Spanish Embassy has carried out an ambitious cultural programme aimed at bringing Spanish culture closer to the Libyan public and hence to bring our peoples closer through art and culture.

Every month since the beginning of the cultural programme, the Embassy has presented a taste of Spain, via its cinema, painting, music, fashion, dance and gastronomy. Several movies were projected in the context of the Spanish Film Festival, featuring comedy, action, thriller and animation. The response from the Libyan public was overwhelming and the response has always been outstanding.

Besides cinema, artists in the areas of painting, dancing, music, fashion and gastronomy have also visited Libya to produce their art and craft. The flamenco show that was hosted at the Red Castle of Tripoli in October 2022 was one of the most outstanding cultural activities of the Embassy of Spain.

Working on transferring visa applications to TripoliOn criticism by the general Libyan public that foreign embassies are not doing enough to facilitate the application for visas, the Deputy Ambassador said while the Embassy is operational since June 2021, logistic challenges remain in the area of visa application. As a result, the visa section of the Embassy continues to operate from Tunis. While some procedures can already be done in Tripoli, the Embassy is working towards a full transfer of the section to Tripoli as soon as possible.

Read this article:
Since reopening in June 2021, the Spanish embassy has been in ... - Libya Herald

The giant 1.1bn cfd Mellitah gas processing complex west of Tripoli has been offline since 1 May to enable three-week comprehensive renovation of both the plant itself and the countrys two largest gas-condensate fields which supply it, offshore Bahr Essalam and Wafa on the Libyan border. All are operated by the Mellitah Oil & Gas JV grouping Eni with Libyas NOC, with Mellitah also supplying the Greenstream pipeline linking the plant with Italy Libyas only gas export route.

The planned shutdown, timed to coincide with a relatively low domestic gas/power demand period between Ramadan (22 March-20 April) and the summer peak, comes after unplanned outages in both 2021 (MEES, 2 July 2021), and 2022 (MEES, 18 February). It also comes as Eni looks to advance $8bn plans to develop an additional 6tcf of offshore gas reserves for processing at Mellitah (MEES, 3 February). (CONTINUED - 1081 WORDS)

Read this article for freeGain access to over 60-years of energy analysis and news

See more here:
Libya Scrambles For Gas Supplies To Keep The Lights On |... - MEES

The Media Office of the Mellitah Oil and Gas Company confirmed in an exclusive statement to Libya Herald that the chairman of the National Oil Corporation (NOC), Farhat Bengdara, personally attended the restart of the Mellitah Oil complex.

The closure resulted in positive results for the NOC and its cadresThe complex had been planned to be closed for 21 days but the major overhaul was completed yesterday in just 16 days. Bengdara commended the Libyan cadres for being able for the first time ever to implement a major overhaul without any help from foreign cadres.

Bengdara also hailed the fact that the NOC was able to maintain vital stable supplies of gas to power stations without interruption to the national network. Moreover, he also commended the NOCs ability to link its eastern and western gas pipelines for the first time in 12 years.

Finally, the Mellitah complex closure enabled the completion of the work to connect the gas line to the Zuwara desalination plant, so that it can be supplied with gas from the Mellitah Industrial Complex continuously and smoothly.

Increased demand for gas locally and to ItalyThe NOC Media Office said the stoppage for maintenance, development, expansion and modernization works to meet the increasing demand for natural gas supplied to Italy, increasing export capacity through the Green Stream Line linked to Italy, as well as to meet the increasing demand for gas used at home.

It added that about 3 million cubic meters of gas arrived in Italy, which is less than the average of about 7-9 million per day before stopping to complete maintenance work. The flow of gas towards Italy will increase further in the coming days, the Media Office explained.

Smokeless flares introducedThe Media Office added that among the development projects in the complex is to reduce the bad environmental impact of any emissions polluting the environment. Therefore, in compliance with local laws and international institutes that stipulate the reduction of emissions, it was decided to start providing a smokeless flare, the so-called dispersed steam, in addition to the existing flare in liquefied natural gas facilities.

The nitrogen plant was modernisedAs a result of the increased demand for nitrogen gas, the nitrogen plant was modernised with the construction of an additional of a nitrogen gas tank with related equipment to contain the increase in demand.

Increased water treatment capacityEqually, because of the increase in the number of workers in Mellitah Industrial Complex, the necessary measures were taken to modernize the existing water treatment plant and increase the number of processing units for industrial use.

Increased housingIn the same vein, housing units were increased to house the required number of workers to operate the complex. Future expansion was also considered within the initial development plan. The current work plan included adding 200 accommodation units with all the attached facilities to be implemented over several periods of time.

Eni had produced 9.3 billion cubic metres of gas in 2022It is noteworthy that, previously, Libya was able to export up to 10 billion cubic meters of gas annually to Italy through the Green Stream pipeline, which connects Sicily with the Eni gas fields in Libya.

In 2022, Eni produced 9.3 billion cubic meters of gas in Libya, of which 2.5 billion cubic meters, or just under a third, reached Italy through the Green Stream pipeline, while 6.8 billion cubic meters was allocated to the local market for electricity generation.

Mellitah complex to shut down for three-week maintenance Sirte Oil Company to pump alternative gas supplies (libyaherald.com)

Here is the original post:
Mellitah complex restarted after 16 day-maintenance rather than the ... - Libya Herald