the Supreme Court nullified the law. Foreign relations On 19 October 2011, the NTC became the first government in the world to recognize the Syrian National Council (SNC) as Syria's "legitimate authority." In November, the Libyan authorities met secretly with members of the SNC and offered them money, arms and, potentially, volunteer fighters for the insurgency against the Syrian government. Abdelhakim Belhadj, head of the Tripoli Military Council, met with leaders of the Free Syrian Army to discuss sending Libyan fighters to train the army's troops. By December, thousands of refugees fleeing the escalating violence in Syria were seeking shelter in Libya. On 25 November, NTC chairman Mustafa Abdul Jalil met with the President of Sudan, Omar al-Bashir, thanking the country for its support of the rebels during the civil war. The Sudanese government supplied the Libyan rebels with arms and ammunition during the uprising. Jalil vowed to establish ties with Sudan in all fields and promised "high-level security cooperation" with the country. On 16 January 2012, Egypt's military ruler Hussein Tantawi arrived on an official visit to Tripoli. Economy Oil On 29 December 2011, Libya's National Oil Corporation (NOC) announced that the country's output of crude oil had risen to over 1 million barrels per day (bpd), compared to 1.6 million bpd before the uprising. Libya's biggest oil terminal, Es Sider, resumed operations as of January 2012 but may take more than a year to be fully repaired. NOC has said that local crude and product needs are given priority. Of Libya's total crude distillation capacity of 378,000 bpd, the country's five domestic refineries are refining 160,000 bpd of current production. Libya's largest refinery, Ra's Lanuf Refinery, is expected to remain offline until the end of the year. The International Energy Agency said the bulk of repairs to oil infrastructure had been undertaken by local petroleum industry staff, but many of the repairs would have to be performed by foreign specialists working for the international oil companies. Most oil companies have deployed small teams to restart production. NOC said it had taken over full control of marketing Libyan oil, which split during the civil war, and that all future deals would give preference to actors who had shown early support during the uprising. The Libyan interior ministry reported on 3 May 2012 that the oil fields were operating in a normal fashion and the production was good. He added