The oil world's most difficult job

NOC’s chairman fears a disaster if his company is dragged into the war for Libya’s oil

Many oilmen are under pressure around the world, but none more than Mustafa Sanallah, chairman of Libya's National Oil Company (NOC) and, given the two-year-old conflict that has left rival governments and their allied militias fighting for control, the country's de facto oil minister. Sanallah's job ought to be straightforward, keeping Libya's high-quality oil flowing out and money flowing in. Instead, since 2014, Libya's post-Qadhafi chaos has only deepened and the NOC chief 's task has become steadily harder. In 2011, Libya produced about 1.6m barrels a day. Now it is struggling to keep output above 200,000 b/d. Most fields are idle; some, in the once-prolific Sirte basin, were severely d