The Libyan National Oil Corporation (NOC) announced on Wednesday that Mr. Ali Seghiar Mohammed Saleh had been appointed as its new head.

NOC state oil firm on Wednesday announced the appointment of Ali Seghir Mohamed Saleh, until now the company's director-general, as its new boss.

The announcement said: "the Secretary of the General People's Committee (Mr. Al-Baghdadi Mahmoudi) issued a letter requiring brother Ali Seghir Mohamed Saleh to serve as Secretary of the Management Committee of the National Oil Corporation."

Saleh is to replace Dr. Shukri Ghanem who held the post for over three years. Mohamed Saleh represented Libya at a Sept. 9 meeting of OPEC energy ministers in Vienna. He stood in for Ghanem, who was absent from the meeting.

Since early September Azzam Al-Messallati, previously the de facto number 2 executive in the company, had been serving as caretaker boss.

The NOC statement said Mohamed Saleh would combine his new role with his old duties as director-general.