Significant reserves had been discovered in Libya in the late 1950s, but the extraction was controlled by foreign petroleum companies, which set prices to the advantage of their own domestic consumers and benefited from a half share in the revenue. Gaddafi demanded renegotiation of the contracts, threatening to shut off production if the oil companies refused. He memorably challenged foreign oil executives by telling them “people who have lived without oil for 5,000 years can live without it again for a few years in order to attain their legitimate rights”. The gambit succeeded and Libya became the first developing country to secure a majority share of the revenues from its own oil production.
