BP’s new nightmare: did they trade a terrorist for oil rights?

BP may have successfully capped the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico but they may have an even bigger problem ahead. Several US lawmakers have petitioned the State Department to investigate whether there is a link between the release of the Lockerbie bomber and BP’s offshore drilling rights in Libya.

Libyan intelligence officer Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al-Megrahi was found guilty of murder due to his involvement in the 1988 bombing of Pan-Am flight 103. In 2001 he was sentenced to a minimum of twenty years due to the “horrendous nature” of the crime that killed 259 passengers and 11 people on the ground in Lockerbie, Scotland.

Megrahi tried several times to get his conviction overturned with little success. At the same time, BP was getting the cold shoulder from the Libyan government about a possible $900m oil exploration project. So, what strategy did BP employ to get the government to cooperate? They pressured the British government to give Megrahi back to Libya.

BP denies lobbying for his release, claiming instead that they were concerned about the speeding up a general prisoner transfer agreement between the two nations. According to a statement from BP they "were aware that this could have a negative impact on UK commercial interests, including the ratification by the Libyan government of BP's exploration agreement."

While BP still claims that they had no involvement in the deal, the son of Libya’s leader, Moammar Gadhafi, said otherwise. Seif al-Islam Gadhafi claimed that Megrahi’s transfer was always brought up during any “trade,
oil and gas deals.”

BP ended up signing a deal with the Libyan Investment Corp. in May 2007. Later that month, Britain and Libya drew up a multi part memorandum of understanding that included the prisoner transfer agreement that BP wanted. The prisoner exchange was ratified by Britain’s Parliament in 2009.

Under pressure from the Obama administration as well as families of the victims, they declined to send Megrahi back under the terms of the transfer agreement. Instead, Megrahi was released to Libyan authorities under humanitarian grounds due to his advanced case of prostate cancer. Doctors hired by the Libyan government claimed he had three months to live. He was released in August 2009 and is still alive in Libya.

The group of lawmakers are asking not only for the British government to reexamine the case but also for BP to halt their drilling operations in Libya. Of course, BP declined their request and will start their offshore drilling project in the next few weeks.