Libya says reshuffle will not change oil policy

VIENNA, Mar 9 (Reuters) Libya will press ahead with a third post-sanction oil and gas licensing round this year and there will be no change in policy, despite a cabinet reshuffle that removed the oil minister, a top official said on Wednesday.

''There will be a licensing round this year,'' said Abdallah al Badri, outgoing chairman of the country's state-run National Oil Corp (NOC). ''It's the same policy. No change.'' He was speaking in Vienna after representing Libya at the latest meeting of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries.

Libya had been expected to hold a third licensing round, possibly this month, building on the success of two previous bidding rounds that brought in a wide array of firms to develop the country's largely unexplored acreage.

But oil officials had said the details of the latest round were still being debated and that it would be delayed.

News on Sunday of a cabinet reshuffle looked set to delay progress further.

Libya's top legislative and executive body appointed al-Baghdadi Ali Al-Mahmoudi as prime minister, replacing the reform-minded Shokri Ghanem, who was put in charge of the oil sector and made the new chairman of the NOC.

The General People's Congress also said in a statement that Fathi Omar Bin Shatwan, who was oil minister during Ghanem's premiership, lost the oil portfolio in the cabinet reshuffle, with his department renamed the Industry Electricity and Mining Ministry.

Analysts have said the ousting of Ghanem from the premiership could lead to a pause in economic reforms.

But they said placing the former leading OPEC official in charge of the oil sector could revitalise Tripoli's efforts to modernise and upgrade the industry following the lifting of most international sanctions that had stifled growth.

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