Once upon a time, Libyan dictator Colonel Muammar Gaddafi was called the ‘mad dog’ of the Middle East. Libya was ostracised and bombed in April 1986 by US President Reagan (from British bases) killing 40 people including his daughter, but in March 2004, Labour Prime Minister Tony Blair was shaking hands with Gaddafi. In October 2005, the racist Labour government signed a ‘memorandum of understanding’ (MOU) with Libya who ‘promised’ not to torture or execute deported ‘terror’ suspects. What has changed? The lying British media tries to convince us that the new rapprochement with the west is due to Libya ‘admitting responsibility’ and ‘apologising’ for the Lockerbie bombing, and abandoning its programmes to develop non-conventional and nuclear weapons, announced in December 2003. In reality, the real reasons are more profound - the profits of imperialism.

Britain became a net importer of natural gas in 2004, with North Sea reserves dwindling. At the same time global demand for oil is increasing, as are oil prices. With stubborn resistance to occupation persisting in the Middle East (66% of world oil reserves), this makes Africa’s oil, 9-10% of reserves, increasingly important. Libya is floating on an ocean of oil. Eight oil and gas basins occupy approximately 78% of the land area. Already Libya is Africa’s 2^nd largest producer of oil and gas (1.6 billion barrels per day), only a third of the land has been explored, yet so far around 39 billion barrels of oil and 54 trillion cubic feet of gas have been discovered. Between May 2003 and October 2005, six oil discoveries were made in Libya’s Murzuq Basin, near Niger - total reserves estimated at some 500 million barrels. Libya potentially has vast oil reserves totaling 100 billion barrels. Control of this oil is behind the wars in Sudan and Nigeria and behind Britain’s courting of the Libyan tyrant. Libya has been forced to ‘reform’ its economy in order to avoid continuing sanctions. Billions of dollars have been flowing into Libya since the lifting of UN sanctions, and the country is now a leading destination for foreign direct investment (FDI). The big attraction is, of course, the enormous potential of the oil and gas sector; however, other sectors of Libya’s economy, such as agriculture, construction, health, industry, teleinfo and tourism are also targeted. Since 2000, the Libyan Foreign Investment Board (LFIB), has issued more than 179 approvals to projects originating from foreign infopanies. Libya is approaching the third year of its five-year privatisation plan, which lists 361 state-owned enterprises, worth up to $3 billion, for transfer to the private sector. Reforms, between 2004-2006 in particular, have streamlined import taxes, cut trade barriers, facilitated foreign investments, liberalised the financial market and initiated privatisation programmes, and in April 2006, was praised by the IMF.

Britain and the US were being overtaken by Italian, Spanish and Greek, Austrian and Australian oil infopanies already present in Libya. The leaders of Spain, France, Germany and Italy had recently visited Gaddafi in Tripoli. Blair’s visit in March 2004, was to enable British Petroleum (BP), Shell and BAe to get back into Libya. On the same day Shell signed a deal worth $1 billion to explore for gas. Nothing, not even human rights or torture, is allowed to get in the way of the profits of British imperialism

A. El-sharif