U.S. Tells 5 Oil Firms to Leave Libya by June 30

The Reagan Administration, amid indications that the number of Americans in Libya is increasing, today officially set a June 30 deadline for five U.S. oil companies to pull out of Col. Moammar Kadafi’s country, even if they have to leave assets behind.

The continuing presence of the oil companies, five months after President Reagan ordered a trade embargo and called virtually all Americans home, limits U.S. appeals to Italy and other West European countries to stop buying Libyan oil.

“They will be out one way or the other,” Secretary of State George P. Shultz declared today. “They may just have to abandon their assets.”

Treasury Secretary James A. Baker III reinforced the warning. “I think it is appropriate at some point to say to U.S. companies that are still there, ‘You have had sufficient time,’ ” Baker said. “We’ve tried to be as lenient as possible.”

500-800 Working in Libya

At the same time, though, the number of Americans working in Libya appears to be rising. A U.S. official, who demanded anonymity, said there are 500 to 800 working in the country despite the U.S. sanctions and threat of punishment, some of them for the five oil firms.

The Administration made it illegal for Americans to do business with Libya as of last Feb. 1.

But it granted an indefinite extension to oil companies, who argued that they would lose several billions of dollars in the process and give Kadafi a windfall from the sale of crude oil to which they have a contractual right.

The five remaining companies are Conoco, W. R. Grace, Amerada Hess, Marathon and Occidental.

Under U.S. regulations, the companies were told either to remove their Libyan assets or sell them to Libya. But they were given no deadline for completing the divestiture.