In June 2003 Gaddafi announced at the nationwide congress a new path for the country towards “popular capitalism” and the beginning of the privatization of the oil and gas industry. It is exactly at that point that Gaddafi signed an agreement with Italy on joint control over illegal immigration. Beginning in 2005, approximately 40 foreign oil companies have returned to work in Libya (primarily under the Production-Sharing Agreements). The amount of “oil rent” (which was previously almost completely accumulated in the national budget and the state investment funds) began to fall as a result. And in 2009, feeling the risk of a collapse of revenues during the crisis and lower oil prices, Gaddafi expressed his reluctance to privatize the National Oil Corporation (on which oil companies, primarily from France, Italy and the U.S.A. had very much been counting). Subsequently, Gaddafi said that agreements with foreign companies for the “equal” distribution of oil produced by them in Libya was an injustice to the Libyan people and that it would be correct to reduce the share of such companies to 10-15%. Libya possesses the largest proven oil reserves in Africa (50 billion bbl.) and estimates of its oil reserves are about 100 billion barrels on land and about the same on the shelf (moreover, not more than 30% of the country has been explored). Therefore, these decisions of Gaddafi’s were a very painful blow to the interests of foreign oil “grandees”, especially given the fact that the bulk of Libya’s oil is the most valuable – the light, low sulfur type requiring minimal expenditure on processing. In addition, the PRC has recently shown increasing activity in obtaining contracts for Libyan oil fields, as well as participation in other Libyan infrastructure and industrial projects. In particular, China’s largest oil corporation CNPC has received a number of promising oil sites in the country for exploration and development. Before the current war, more than 30 thousand Chinese experts and workers had worked in Libya (after the war began, almost all of them were evacuated from the country). The Libyan “Chinese” factor –against the backdrop of the higher activity of Chinese businesses in Africa in general – is considered by knowledgeable experts to be one of the major reasons for the organization of the war against Gaddafi by Western nations.
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/176776.html