A unit of Libya's state owned National Oil Corporation has decided to operate separately from its parent until Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi is overthrown and Tripoli is free of his rule.

Mr Hassan Bulifa member of the management board of Agoco, a unit of NOC said that his firm was considering setting up its own marketing division to sell crude. Tankers being loaded at Tobruk for China’s Sinopec and another waiting for Austria’s OMV were contracted under deals with NOC's marketing division.

Rebels control both eastern cities of Tobruk and Benghazi the base for Agoco's main office.

Mr Bulifa said that the first tanker for Sinopec should be fully loaded some time around midnight and then the second one will advance to the terminal immediately afterwards. We have those two tankers but we have to make contacts to see if others are coming or not. For now I cannot say if any others are imminent.

He said that even though those two contracts were made through NOC, we allowed the loadings to happen to send a signal to the free world that we are serious about pumping the oil we have.

Mr Bulifa said that all marketing was still in the hands of NOC, describing Agoco as an operating company. But Agoco had declared it was splitting from NOC including possibly setting up its own marketing division as long as the split lasted.

He said that Agoco has decided to dissociate itself from NOC until we free Tripoli and overthrow Gaddafi. Then of course we will go back into NOC. As long as Tripoli is under siege we decided to dissociate ourselves from them.

(Sourced from Reuters0