In general, environmental protection was not important in Libya over the past years, although a law on the environment exists since 1982, known as (Law No 7/82). This might be due to the political problems that isolated Libya from the rest of world. The opening up of the economy of Libya to the rest of the world resulted in an increased concern about environmental protection as a priority of the Libyan government, which led to a new law passed in 2003 by the Libyan Congress. This law created some awareness of the environmental issues [source 4]. This awareness also resulted in the issue of Libyan law on the environment (Law No 15/03) and the NOC HSE Work Program.

The Environmental program is overseen by the NOC which aims to promote national policies to protect health and the environment and uses an integrated approach to link economic, environmental and social policies. Therefore, companies are increasingly concerned with achieving and demonstrating sound environmental performance by controlling the impact of their activities, products or services on the environment. The actual implementation of strategies and methods requires minimizing environmental impacts of petroleum operations. It is apparently difficult to effectively implement an environmental standard without strong legislative backing from the government.

International agreements on the environment have also played an active role as far as Libyan environmental awareness is concerned. Libya is a party to convention on Biological Diversity, the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, the Convention on the International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Flora and Fauna, the Convention on the Control of Trans-boundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes and their Disposal, Convention of the Prevention of Marine Pollution by Dumping Wastes and other Matter, the Convention to Combat Desertification in those Countries Experiencing Serious Drought and/or Desertification, and the Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer.