Environmental management has become a part of societal life and a dominant issue for every sector of economies in the developed world. However, due to the absence of EMS the Libyan petroleum companies are not able to compete in the international petroleum sector. The rules and regulations specified by developed countries concerning environmental protection are becoming highly challenging. These have posed tremendous difficulties for both the government of Libya, as well as the petroleum companies to meet the national and international legislative requirements. Since 1999, Libya has been transformed by aligning itself according to the requirements and expectations of the industrial nations of the world and has, therefore, in this process of transformation, already become one of the competitive nations in the petroleum sector. The country has started to attract international investment by companies and individuals from all over the world. The change of Libyan economic policy towards open markets and the signing of many international agreements incorporating legal concerns related to biodiversity, climate change, endangered species, hazardous wastes, marine dumping, and ozone layer protection in their system. This has subsequently enabled the Libyan petroleum industry to make efforts to set up some basic procedures to improve environmental performance. This is an enormous interdisciplinary work, which requires a lot of effort. The present work aims to introduce an internationally accepted environmental management system according to the ISO 14001 standard to enable the oil industry remove the prevalent deficiencies as far as environmental management is concerned in the industry. This work uses AGOCO as a model company for case study analyses, which would provide an excellent opportunity for the implementation of EMS in accordance with ISO 14001 in all petroleum companies of Libya. The detailed analysis is based on the cumulative assessment of the current environmental management manual of AGOCO, interviews with some of the company’s personnel and telephone communications with some employees of the company. The analysis reveals the strengths and weaknesses in the concerning EMS planning, implementation, checking and review. Using AGOCO as a benchmark for all other petroleum companies, the work has resulted in the formulation of procedures to be followed by the other companies in compliance with the international standards.

Environmental management has become a part of societal life and a dominant issue for every sector of economies in the developed world. However, due to the absence of EMS the Libyan petroleum companies are not able to compete in the international petroleum sector. The rules and regulations specified by developed countries concerning environmental protection are becoming highly challenging. These have posed tremendous difficulties for both the government of Libya, as well as the petroleum companies to meet the national and international legislative requirements. Since 1999, Libya has been transformed by aligning itself according to the requirements and expectations of the industrial nations of the world and has, therefore, in this process of transformation, already become one of the competitive nations in the petroleum sector. The country has started to attract international investment by companies and individuals from all over the world. The change of Libyan economic policy towards open markets and the signing of many international agreements incorporating legal concerns related to biodiversity, climate change, endangered species, hazardous wastes, marine dumping, and ozone layer protection in their system. This has subsequently enabled the Libyan petroleum industry to make efforts to set up some basic procedures to improve environmental performance. This is an enormous interdisciplinary work, which requires a lot of effort. The present work aims to introduce an internationally accepted environmental management system according to the ISO 14001 standard to enable the oil industry remove the prevalent deficiencies as far as environmental management is concerned in the industry. This work uses AGOCO as a model company for case study analyses, which would provide an excellent opportunity for the implementation of EMS in accordance with ISO 14001 in all petroleum companies of Libya. The detailed analysis is based on the cumulative assessment of the current environmental management manual of AGOCO, interviews with some of the company’s personnel and telephone communications with some employees of the company. The analysis reveals the strengths and weaknesses in the concerning EMS planning, implementation, checking and review. Using AGOCO as a benchmark for all other petroleum companies, the work has resulted in the formulation of procedures to be followed by the other companies in compliance with the international standards.