Time to lift the lid on Qadhafi’s oil contracts

Libya's interim oil minister, Ali Tarhouni, should do it now. He should simply press that button and push every last page of every contract the Qadhafi regime ever made with local and international companies out onto the web. And all the accompanying data, too – the posted crude prices, the cost recovery certification, the service contracts, the company registration documents. Publish and be damned. Because when you look at the big picture, the National Transitional Council (NTC) - and Libya itself - has far more to gain than lose from resetting the rules of the game. Such total transparency might actually be the most useful tool the new minister has as he confronts a complex situation that grows more complicated by the day. The Libyan oil sector, which produced 1.6 million barrels of oil a day (b/d) just six months ago, has all but collapsed, and experts disagree about how...