MOSCOW. July 20 (Interfax) - All three historical regions of Libya should have equal access to the revenues from sales of energy resources of the country, Russian Foreign Ministry Maria Zakharova said.
"Libyans should manage their natural resources single-handedly without any external interference. Each of the three historical regions of the country, Tripolitania, Cyrenaica, and Fezzan, has a right to have equal opportunities to gain revenues from the exploitation of Libya's oil," Zakharova said in a commentary published on the Russian Foreign Ministry's website.
It is necessary to create appropriate conditions to that end, "first and foremost, ensure the resumption of coordinated work of the national institutions in charge of the management of the hydrocarbon sector and the revenues from it," she said.
"In the first place, those are Libya's National Oil Corporation and the country's Central Bank, which must ensure fair distribution of the revenues from oil and gas export between all Libyans without any discrimination," Zakharova said.
Oil's status of the national property of the entire Libyan nation is entrenched, in particular, in the final document of the International Conference on Libya which took place in Berlin this January and the United Nations Security Council Resolution 2510 which formalized the decisions of the Berlin conference, she said.
"However, until recently, the revenues from oil sales abroad were accumulated at the Central Bank of Libya controlled by the Government of National Accord. Despite the fact that the majority of oil fields are located in the east of the country, residents of this region were deprived of the opportunity to use the proceeds of hydrocarbon material sales. This abnormal situation eventually caused the suspension of export oil shipments," Zakharova said.