A record-breaking agreement was signed to increase gas production and control migratory flows when Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni struck a deal with the Libyan government on migrants, while hydrocarbon giant Eni CEO Claudio Descalzi concluded an agreement on the energy front.
Meloni visited Libya to meet the Libyan National Unity government’s Prime Minister Abdul Hamid Dbeibah, and the President of the Presidential Council, Mohammed Yunis Ahmed Al-Menfi. The visit to Tripoli follows the one to Algiers in recent days and could precede one to Tunisia, and is part of the government’s plan to make Italy an energy hub for Europe – the so-called ‘Mattei Plan’.
“Today’s agreement will make it possible to make important investments in the energy sector in Libya, contributing to development and job creation in the country and strengthening Eni’s position as the leading operator in Libya,” said Descalzi.
Descalzi and Farhat Bengdara, CEO of Libya’s National Oil Corporation (Noc), have signed an agreement to start developing A&E facilities, a strategic project that aims to increase gas production to supply Libya’s domestic market and ensure exports to Europe. Eni has been operating in Libya since 1959 where it is the main gas producer with a share of 80% of national production.
The total investment is about $8 billion, the largest made by Eni in the last 25 years. The agreement covers two offshore fields off the west coast whose reserves are estimated at 6 trillion cubic feet. Gas production will start in 2026 and, at a rate of 850 million cubic feet per day, can go on for 25 years.
“The energy sector has not seen an investment of this magnitude for more than a quarter of a century,” Noc’s CEO Farhat Bengdara told Bloomberg. “It is a clear message to the international business community that the Libyan state is past the stage of political risks,” he added.
The project also includes the construction of a carbon dioxide capture and storage facility that will reduce the overall carbon footprint, in line with the EU and Eni’s decarbonisation strategy.
Libya is fifth in the ranking of African countries with the largest gas reserves after Nigeria, Algeria, Mozambique and Egypt. Since 2004, the 520 km-long GreenStream gas pipeline has been in operation, connecting Libya to Italy and, specifically, Mellitah to Gela, in Sicily.
Immigration dossier
It is crucial for the Italian centre-right government not to abandon one of its war horses: stopping illegal immigration. With this in mind, the prime minister is aiming to strengthen cooperation with North African countries to regulate outflows.
It is necessary to “find structural and verifiable solutions” on the containment of irregular immigration, also “in collaboration with the UN agency on the ground,” said Meloni in view of the increased illegal departures by sea from Libya, fuelled by human traffickers.
To this end, Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani and Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi signed cooperation agreements with their Libyan counterparts.
The former was to “strengthen capacity and cooperation with the Libyan authority in relation to the coastguard,” while the latter laid the foundations for “a joint task force” on migratory flows, counter-terrorism and counter-narcotics.
Meloni offered Italy as a partner to help Lybia’s growth and the path towards regular elections “quickly” to stabilise the country which is still divided into two governments, more than a year after the postponement of elections.
Libya’s other executive, which is not recognised by the international community, is led by Fathi Bashagha while Cyrenaica, strategic on several fronts, is under the control of General Khalifa Haftar, the protagonist of the civil war that flared up in 2014 after the fall of Gaddafi.
Meloni only made a stopover in Tripoli but the agreement signed with Noc represents a rapprochement with Haftar as well, since the Noc Ceo Bengdara, who signed the deal, is a man close to him.
A “broad national political compromise can help unblock the current stalemate,” Meloni said. Italy “will do its part to ensure greater unity of intent on the part of the international community on the Libyan dossier and to avoid the risk that certain influences work to destabilise the picture rather than favour it,” she added.
The proposed change of approach aims to help “African countries to grow and become richer” and is not intended to be “predatory”, stressed the premier, who not long ago used the same word to describe the attitude of the French government led by President Emmanuel Macron.
(Federica Pascale | EURACTIV.it)
Source: euractiv.com
