A surge in state-sanctioned fuel smuggling between 2022 and 2024 cost the Libyan people about $20bn in lost revenue, the Sentry — an investigative and policy body — reports, and calls for decisive international sanctions against those responsible. The report says “politicians and security leaders who claim to serve the public and fight organised crime have, in fact, acted as the chief architects of Libya’s fuel-smuggling industry, often with backing from foreign states.” Some imported fuel was also smuggled into Sudan, where it has helped prolong that country’s civil war.
Sentry urges a western-backed probe into the Libyan oil officials central to the enterprise and international assistance to ensure domestic investigative bodies identify those who stole state funds. While fuel smuggling has long plagued Libya, the report finds the scale rose sharply after 2022 following a change in leadership at the National Oil Corporation (NOC), one of the few institutions that spans the country’s east–west political divide.
Under a swap system introduced by the NOC, abundant Libyan crude was exchanged for imported refined fuel. Rather than entering the domestic subsidised market, much of this refined product was resold abroad at large profit. By late 2024, the NOC’s fuel imports had climbed from about 20.4 million litres per day in early 2021 to more than 41 million litres per day. Sentry says no genuine rise in domestic demand could justify that jump and estimates more than half the imported petrol was diverted and sold privately by criminal networks. Libya still has very limited refining capacity.
Sentry calculates over $6.7bn worth of fuel was smuggled out of Libya in 2024 alone — a sum that would have more than tripled government spending on health and education. The report argues that, given its scale, fuel smuggling is no longer merely a symptom of weak governance but was effectively embraced by top rulers from 2021 as a systematic strategy to siphon wealth. Kleptocrats and organised crime networks, working with corrupt officials who control state bureaucracy, logistical hubs, distribution points, routes and border crossings, orchestrated a dramatic rise in illegal exports to destinations including Sudan, Chad, Niger, Tunisia, Albania, Malta, Italy and Turkey.
Transport methods ranged from ships and tanker trucks to smaller vehicles and even rogue pipelines, depending on location and circumstances. The illegal exports caused domestic shortages and forced citizens — especially in peripheral areas — to buy fuel at much higher prices from unofficial sellers. Sentry says the smuggling deprived the Central Bank of Libya of vital dollar revenues and damaged the NOC’s integrity; hydrocarbon exports account for virtually all of Libya’s income.
The surge in fuel imports took place during the NOC chairmanship of Farhat Bengdara, who left the post in January after 30 months. The NOC says it abandoned the swap system in March 2025; it also reports that the quality of fuel imported from January to September fell by 8% compared with the previous year. Experts, however, say Libya continues to import far more fuel than it could plausibly consume.
Bengdara told Sentry that during his tenure the NOC remained transparent and cooperative with national institutions and international organisations. He said he proposed reforms to the Council of Ministers and the Supreme Council for Energy Affairs aimed at reducing reliance on subsidised diesel for electricity generation, including boosting natural gas production, promoting gas and renewable energy for power, and beginning a gradual removal of fuel subsidies.
