The name of the former Libyan Norwegian Fertiliser Co. (Lifeco), a former joint venture between Yara International ASA and Libya’s National Oil Corp. (NOC) and the Libyan Investment Authority (LIA), has been changed to the Libyan Fertilizer Company.
The Libya Herald newspaper, citing NOC, reported that the company’s new name was approved and the necessary registration procedures were completed at a shareholders meeting of Lifeco on June 17.
Yara, which had held a 50 percent shareholding in Lifeco, reached a deal with NOC and LIA to divest its full holding on Dec. 31, 2020, putting the book value of its investment at zero (GM Jan.8, p. 1).
NOC acquired the Yara stake. Prior to the agreement, NOC and LIA each held a 25 percent stake in the ammonia and urea production jv.
Lifeco’s production facilities comprise two ammonia and two prilled urea units at Marsa El Brega, on the Mediterranean Coast, some 700 kilometers east of the Libyan capital, Tripoli, but have struggled to perform ever since Muammar Gaddafi was deposed in 2011 and Libya became mired in political and military instability (GM Feb. 28, 2011).