Russia Gets in Talks with Libyan Rebels amidst Energy Scramble

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov announced Moscow invited the Libyan rebels for energy talks. EPA/BGNES

Russia's government has invited the Libyan rebels – whose Transitional National Council has gained international recognition as the country's new government – for talks on the work of Russian energy companies in Libya.

Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Saturday that Moscow had invited the new Libyan authorities to discuss the future of energy projects signed under fugitive leader Muammar Gaddafi, RIA Novosti reported.

Before the conflict broke out in Libya, Russian energy giant Gazprom sealed a deal with Italian energy concern Eni to acquire 33% of Eni's shares in Libya's Elephant oil and gas field project worth EUR 113 M. The deal has remained in the air as it needs the approval from the Libyan side.

Sergei Lavrov said the initiative to discuss the fate of Russia's energy plans in Libya had come from representatives of Libya's new National Transitional Council (NTC).

"They have proposed a discussion. We invited some [Libyan] officials to Moscow at their request," Lavrov said during a summit of leaders of the former Soviet republics, the Commonwealth of Independent States, in Tajikistan.

Russia, which recognized the government of the Libyan rebels only at the end of this week, had established ties with 40-year leader Gaddafi, whose whereabouts remain unknown.

The fate of the Russian-Italian energy deal in Libya is unclear as Western countries have also expressed interest in the Elephant project, RIA Novosti points out, adding that the new Libyan government has already signalled that NATO countries, which supported it during the six months of armed confrontation with Gaddafi, would have the priority in energy projects in the oil-rich country.