Italian Minister Makes Surprise Libya Visit
Italy’s foreign minister Paolo Gentiloni made a surprise visit to Tripoli on April 12 to meet Libyan prime minister Fayez Sarraj, becoming the first top western official to visit the Libyan capital since a new government was installed there two weeks ago.
“I am delighted to be in Tripoli [to provide] Italy's emergency aid and to support Sarraj's Government of National Accord,” wrote Gentiloni on Twitter.
His ministry later added that Gentiloni said he went to offer Libya Italy's political, humanitarian and economic support, and to express Italy and the international community's readiness to cooperate and contribute in the fight against terrorism.
While many foreign oil producers in Libya have halted operations because of security concerns, Eni continues to produce in the country. Descalzi said in mid-March that Eni was still producing on average 250,000 boe/d – some of which is offshore gas in partnership with state National Oil Company.
Flows from Libya’s onshore Melitah plant, which receives and processes that offshore gas, to the Italian import pipeline terminal at Gela in Sicily had been stable for weeks at roughly 15mn m3/d.
Last week however they slumped during April 4-6, reaching a low of 2.31mn m3 on April 5. An industry source told NGE on April 11 that it had been informed of a "technical problem" last week on the Libyan side, but that it had since been resolved.
On April 11 they were at 14.725mn m3 and on April 12 15.75mn m3 – both normal levels (equivalent to rates of 5.4bn and 5.75bn m3/yr respectively).
The subsea Greenstream pipeline, linking Melitah to Gela, has capacity to export roughly 9bn m3/yr to Italy.
Early this March two Italian hostages were killed and two others freed. The four, employees of Italian contractor Bonatti, had been kidnapped by Islamist militants in July 2015 near the Melitah terminal where they had been working.
Despite the insecurity, last month Descalzi said in London that Eni still has plans to develop the Bahr Essalam South gas discovery that it made last year offshore Libya such that it would start up in 2018 -- although he admitted that onshore gas projects might be deferred for security reasons.
French foreign minister Jean-Marc Ayrault spoke to Sarraj by phone on April 7 and expressed the wish that France’s ambassador would return to Tripoli as soon as possible. Many western ambassadors were pulled out in 2014 when the security situation deteriorated. Ayrault added that France was prepared to respond to requests for help from Sarraj’s government, particularly in the area of security, in cooperation with its partners and the UN.
Italy’s gesture in Libya contrasts with its recall at the weekend of its ambassador to Egypt over the murder of an Italian researcher.
Meanwhile Italy's prime minister Matteo Renzi, along with many business leaders including Eni CEO Claudio Descalzi, visited Tehran on April 12/13 on a trade visit. Italian utility Enel confirmed it signed a MoU with National Iranian Gas Export Company (Nigec), setting out principles for possible future cooperation in gas, LNG and/or related infrastructure (sharing information, studies, analyses and training) and exploring future opportunities for long term supplies. Separately Italy's Saipem signed a MoU for potential cooperation with Iran's Razavi Oil & Gas Development Company on developing the 60bn m3-plus Toos gas field project 100km northeast of Mashhad; the project encompasses drilling 5 firm plus 2 optional wells. Italy's Eni signed no new agreement, but had already reached some agreements since the EU/US agreed last July to lift most sanctions against Iran over time.
EU foreign affairs chief Federica Mogherini leads a high-level European Commission delegation to Iran on April 16-17 for talks that will include energy.
Mark Smedley