ROME/TRIPOLI (Portal) – Italian energy company Eni and Libya’s National Oil Corporation (NOC) on Saturday signed an $8 billion gas production deal aimed at securing Europe’s energy supply despite the uncertainty and political chaos in the country North African country to boost.
The deal, signed during a visit to Tripoli by Italy’s Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, aims to increase gas production for the Libyan domestic market as well as exports through the development of two offshore gas fields.
Production will begin in 2026 and will plateau at 750 million cubic feet per day, Eni said in a statement.
“This agreement will enable important investments in Libya’s energy sector, contribute to local development and job creation, while strengthening Eni’s role as a leading operator in the country,” said CEO Claudio Descalzi.
Meloni met in Tripoli with Libyan Prime Minister Abdulhamid al-Dbeibah, head of the internationally recognized Government of National Unity (GNU), for talks that also included migration across the Mediterranean.
At a joint press conference with Descalzi, NOC chief Farhat Bengdara said the gas contract will run for 25 years, calling it the most important new investment in Libya’s energy sector in a quarter century.
Because of the war in Ukraine, European countries have increasingly sought to replace Russian gas with energy supplies from North Africa and elsewhere over the past year.
Italy has already taken a leadership role in sourcing gas from Algeria, establishing a new strategic partnership there that includes investments to help state-owned energy company Sonatrach reverse production that has been falling for years.
POLITICAL RISK
However, the accords reached in Tripoli may be undermined by Libya’s internal conflict, which has divided the country into rival factions vying for control of the government and each other’s claims to political legitimacy.
Underscoring the uncertainty, Dbeibah’s own oil minister, Mohamed Oun, has rejected any deal NOC might reach with Italy, saying in a video on the ministry’s website that such deals should be made by the ministry.
Eni’s Descalzi said the agreement will also include a CO2 capture plant and solar power.
NOC chief Bengdara was appointed last year by Dbeibah, whose own interim government was installed in 2021 through a UN-backed process.
The east-based parliament and factions that support it said early last year that the government was no longer legitimate, rejecting both Bengdara’s appointment and deals Tripoli has made with foreign states.
Chaos in Libya since the 2011 NATO-backed uprising that left ousted autocrat Muammar Gaddafi in the hands of armed groups for much of the country.
In statements to the press, Dbeibah and Meloni said they also spoke about illegal migration from Libya to Italy, an issue that Rome’s right-wing leader had placed at the center of her political campaigns during her rise to power.
Italy will support Libya by providing new search and rescue ships, Dbeibah said.
Insecurity and lawlessness have made Libya an important, if dangerous, route for migrants trying to reach Europe, often via Italy. Hundreds of migrants die trying to make the journey every year.
Italian Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi, who oversees the migration issue for Rome, accompanied Meloni to Libya, as did Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani.
Reporting by Ayman al-Warfali in Libya and Gavin Jones in Rome; additional reporting by Ahmed Tolba and Enas Alashray in Cairo; writing by Angus McDowall and Gavin Jones; Editing by Clelia Oziel
Our standards: The Thomson Portal Trust Principles.