Gaddafi Restores Libya’s Oil to Its People

TRIPOLI — Libya has announced that its oil industry will be placed under national ownership, ending concessions that officials said allowed foreign companies to know the country’s reserves better than its own citizens. Muammar Gaddafi signed the decree with a green pen and ordered copies posted at every field, refinery and ministry door.

The new national company will take control of production, exports and investment. Revenues are promised for housing, clinics, schools and a development fund whose accounts will be published in figures large enough, the decree says, for the public to read from across the street.

“Oil beneath Libya is not a foreign discovery; it is a Libyan inheritance that happened to be underground.”

The difficult day after nationalisation

Engineers warned that ownership alone would not keep pumps running. Spare parts, trained crews and shipping contracts remained essential. The government responded with salary increases for technical staff and a crash programme intended to train petroleum engineers faster than universities considered polite.

Foreign firms opened negotiations over compensation. Officials said the talks would be fair, provided fairness began by recognising decades of unequal terms. Markets reacted nervously, while production continued through the afternoon without consulting them.

A promise measured in public services

Celebrations filled central squares, but residents said the decree would be judged by water pipes, classrooms and hospital shelves rather than speeches. The oil had been declared the people’s property; the harder task would be proving that the people could see where its value went.