A host of energy firms have so far refused to do business with the U.N.-backed Libyan government until a peace treaty is signed, another blow to the institution’s bid to build a new National Oil Co. and tap into the country’s petroleum reserves. The government, based in Libya’s eastern city of Baida, gathered more than 30 energy firms and traders at an upmarket hotel in Malta on Wednesday. It was another bid to lure business away from the country’s long-established National Oil Co. in Tripoli, where a coalition of militias known as Libya Dawn holds power. The old National Oil Co. says it is an independent company, a view the United Nations endorses. The Dawn-led government has appointed its own oil minister, but has kept the company’s pre-war management in place. But no oil companies or traders signed on with the eastern government’s new firm, also called National Oil […]