Libya's UN-backed government has appointed Naji al-Maghrabi as chairman of its state oil firm National Oil Corporation—aka NOC—based in the east of the country, an oil official said on Saturday. The move is largely symbolic as oil production and marketing of exports are controlled by NOC in Tripoli where a rival government is in charge, Reuters reported. The official government has been based in the east since losing the capital to the rival administration a year ago. It has appointed a head for an oil firm based in a separate headquarters in the east, but oil customers have refused to deal with it, preferring to pay through existing channels via NOC in Tripoli. Maghrabi, who is currently in Egypt, will replace al-Mabrook Bou Seif as chairman of NOC in the east, an oil official said, without elaborating on details.
