Sweet & Sour: Libya emerges from vacuum singing new tune

I started visiting Libya in 1984 but I did not get to meet Colonel Muammar Gaddafi until 1986.

The US sixth fleet was positioned offshore Libya, waiting for the order from then US President Ronald Reagan to strike. Gaddafi was, however, more concerned with organising tea parties with visiting women journalists than with the threat of US attack, which came just a month later.

One souvenir of my brief acquaintance with the Libyan leader was a rare photograph of himself and his family. Standing in all his splendour is Gaddafi in his long robes and salmon head-scarf towering over his seated wife, Safia, and his four children.

I mention this not because I am dropping names but because the role of the children was instrumental in bringing about Gaddafi's rehabilitation. My brief conversation with Gaddafi back in 1986 revealed a naive man with little or virtually no knowledge or understanding of the West.

It was only when his son Seif Al Islam came of age and brought Shokri Ghanem back from Opec headquarters in Vienna to serve as prime minister that Libya started to speak a language the West could understand. Gaddafi could never have done that on his own.

I once found myself in a ridiculous situation in Benghazi that I still laugh about to this day. The world's press got tired of waiting for the inevitable US strike in 1986 and asked to be taken to Benghazi, where we thought the first US strike would come. Our minders, keen to go shopping in Benghazi, lobbied and got the trip approved.

On the appointed day, we were driven to the airport and given the red carpet treatment. By then all the other journalists had left Libya to go chasing after another story and our party consisted of one photographer and three journalists, one of them an American.

But to the Libyans, we represented the world's media and deserved VIP treatment. When we arrived, we were led to a fleet of brand new cars. Our driver wore blue jeans and was mouthing the words to the tune of "Born in the USA" blaring from the car radio.

My American colleague and I could not suppress our laughter. Here was the US navy about to unleash its missiles and Bruce Springstein was providing the entertainment?

The jolly convoy drove on to Benghazi. But only too soon, our minders' true motives became apparent. Screeching to a halt, one of our minders ran to our car and informed us that the Great Leader himself may drop in on a conference being held only a few miles away. Did we mind making a slight detour? We agreed, believing that the elusive Gaddafi might actually turn up.

Conference

It soon became clear that the reason for our being in Benghazi was to cover a conference, ridiculously titled The International, Scientific Conference on Colonialism and Vacuum. Don't ask.

But our translators told us it had to do with the subject of an essay by Gaddafi about clouds and rain and vacuum and politics, hence the scientific label. We had been brought to Benghazi not to see the sights or Gaddafi but to cover this ridiculous event.

It got worse. Every day we were taken to this conference and were expected to report on it. Then on the final day, we were taken to a back room to be interviewed about our views on the International Conference About Colonialism and Vacuum.

We tried to keep a straight face but my American colleague was incensed when the interviewer asked her how she felt about Reagan sending school teachers into space to be killed, a reference to the Challenger tragedy.

That was too much for her. She stood up and told the representative of Libyan radio that she refused to sit and allow her president and her country to be insulted in this way. We, in solidarity, also ended the interview and demanded to be taken back to Tripoli.

That night, there was no red carpet treatment. We walked to our plane in the rain and a few days later left the country. And this is the country that the world's oil companies will be clamouring to get into now. I never saw Gaddafi again after the US bombing but I did get to meet him a few times and he remains an enigma.

Ask Gaddafi to name his favourite author, musician or book, and he will give template responses he has rehearsed over the years. I doubt whether he listens much to Beethoven or if he has read Uncle Tom's Cabin - which he told me where his favourite composers and book.

The man who has ruled Libya since seizing power in a military coup in 1969 is not a widely travelled man, which is why he remained in isolation for so long. He just did not know how to communicate with a United States.

At the time of writing, Gaddafi and his women bodyguards had just arrived in Brussels, where he has pitched his beloved tent. No doubt he is carrying an extensive wardrobe with him for he knows how to play to the gallery.

But has the self-anointed colonel who has been in power for more than three decades changed his colours? Probably not. Maybe he too has been listening to Bruce Springstein and he has learned to mime the words that the West wanted to hear.

The minute Gaddafi made his the shock revelation that he possessed weapons of mass destruction and atoned for his past misdeeds, the doors to the West opened up. As did the opportunity for US companies to do business with Libya, whose oil and gas resources are still under exploited. Imagine what would have happened had Saddam Hussein had hired Saif Al Islam as his adviser?

Advantage

While Iraq is a far bigger prize, holding the second biggest oil reserves in the world, Libya enjoys the advantage of proximity to the European markets, which are hungry not just for its oil but also its natural gas.

US oil companies have already sent delegates to Tripoli and the first shipment of crude oil to the US is expected to leave as early as May after Washington reversed a ban that had been in place since 1986.

New oil and gas exploration and production contracts will follow and competition is expected to be fierce since Libya is one of the most promising foreign investment prospects around. Its oil production costs are among the lowest in the world and its geographic location means it would take around two weeks for an oil shipment to reach the US Gulf rather than the 40 days it takes for a tanker trip from the Gulf.

Libyan crude oil produces some decent gasoline grades, just what the US market is hankering for in the run-up to the driving season. Libyans may finally enjoy the standard of living that other oil-producing nations have known for decades.

Back in 1986, journalists used to snigger whenever Gaddafi's aides would refer to him as the "Great Thinker". I wonder who is laughing now?

The writer is Middle East Editor of Platts, energy information division of McGraw-Hill Companies. The views expressed in this column reflect those of the author and not those of Platts