US Embassy alarmed by power struggle at Libya’s oil company

By NOHA ELHENNAWY
Associated Press

CAIRO (AP) — The U.S. Embassy in Libya says it’s concerned over the struggle for control of Libya’s oil corporation after its chairman was sacked. The embassy said in a statement on Thursday that it’s following the standoff over the leadership of Libya’s National Oil Corporation. The Tripoli-based government of Abdul Hamid Dbeibah a day earlier announced the dismissal of Mustafa Sanallah, chairman of the National Oil Corporation, and the appointment of Farhat Bengdara, a former governor of Libya’s central bank, as the country’s new oil chief. Libya’s prized light crude has long been a feature of the country’s civil war, with rival militias jostling for control of Africa’s largest oil reserves.