The return of Libya’s most controversial oil trader

For months, a narrative took hold across Libya's energy sector: BGN, the Swiss-based crude trader that had once dominated the country's oil exports, was finished.

Libya, officials and industry figures told us, was finally charting a course toward a more transparent and competitive market.

Western traders were stepping in to fill the gap and allocations were being rebalanced.

That narrative, according to multiple people with direct knowledge of the matter, turned out to be misleading.

BGN did not leave Libya. It simply adapted.

An investigation by The Geopolitical Desk, drawing on interviews with sources across Libya's Ministry of Oil and Gas, former officials at the National Oil Corporation, individuals familiar with ongoing inquiries at the Attorney General's Office, and market participants with knowledge of recent trading activity, presents a more complex picture.

One in which the appearance of reform has coexisted with the quiet reassertion of entrenched interests.

From bitumen trader to Libya’s gatekeeper

BGN’s rise and success in Libya was largely the product of a discrete but powerful strategy.

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