(Bloomberg) -- Libya’s factions reached a “compromise” on appointing new leadership for the OPEC member’s central bank, the United Nations said, an initial step toward eventually resolving a crisis that’s slashed oil output.
Representatives from Libya’s rival eastern and western administrations “initialed an agreement on the procedures, criteria, and timelines for appointing a governor, deputy governor and board of directors,” the UN mission to the country said Wednesday in a statement.
Libyan media outlets, as well as El-Hadi Elsaghir, a member of parliament attending the UN-led talks who spoke to Bloomberg, said the two sides had agreed to nominate a bank chief, Naji Issa. Such a nomination would probably allow negotiations to move forward to the issue of longer-term management.
The UN didn’t mention any names or nominees. It said a signing ceremony will take place Thursday “in the presence of the international community.”
Libya’s factions have been at loggerheads since mid-August, when the UN-recognized government in Tripoli, the capital, moved to replace central bank governor Sadiq Al-Kabir, who managed billions of dollars of the North African nation’s oil wealth. Authorities in the east, where much of the crude is pumped, rejected that and ordered a shutdown of all output and exports.
Daily output in the nation that’s home to Africa’s largest reserves fell to about 450,000 barrels in the weeks after the start of the blockade, from more than 1 million before the crisis. Exports, however, are still reaching global markets and even climbed again in the past week.
(Recasts with UN statement.)
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