The Cyrenaica Transitional Council, a self-proclaimed government in Libya's oil-rich eastern region, is using Canada's Dickens & Madson to gain recognition by the U.S. and Russian governments.

D&M's $400K contract is to providing media relations and other PR services to "promote federalism in Libya, and the equitable distribution of national wealth and to improve the security conditions in Cyrenaica," according to its U.S. registration filing.

The CTC claims it wants a peaceful resolution to its political differences with Libya's central government in Tripoli. Its aim is a split of Libya into three self-governing regions.

CTC also is using D&M to line up buyers of the region's oil.

Cyrenaica political leaders in November met in Benghazi, formed a government and denounced Libya prime minister Ali Zeidan of "incompetence and corruption," reported Voice of America.

Their militias seized and blockaded Libya?s biggest oil-exporting ports in Ras Lanuf and Es-Sider earlier this year, dealing a blow to national energy exports.

Libya is producing a daily average of 233K barrels of  oil vs. 1.5M under the late Col Gaddafi.