Oil companies await the seemingly imminent downfall of the Gaddafi regime, with Itlian giant Eni leading the pack.
Italy’s Foreign Minister Franco Frattini has said on Italian national television that staff from Eni had arrived in Libya to look into a restart of oil facilities in the east of the country even as fighting between the vestiges of government troops and the rebels continues in Tripoli.
“The facilities had been made by Italians, by (oil field services group) Saipem , and therefore it is clear that Eni will play a No. 1 role in the future,” Frattini told state TV RAI, according to a Reuters report.
Eni has operated in Libya since 1959 and before the war was Libya’s largest foreign player in upstream activity with six exploration and production sharing agreements in force with the National Oil Company, each lasting to 2042 for oil and 2047 for gas, which combined produced 522,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day (with Eni’s share amounting to 244,000, 44% of which was liquids) (2009 figures).
Qatar – the first Arab nation to recognise the rebel National Transitional Council – is also reported to be looking for some reserves in return for the banking and military assistance furnished to the rebels in the last six months.
“We fully intend to return to Libya to fulfil our contract when conditions allow,” a spokesman for BP told Reuters. BP has a $900 million exploration contract in Libya but is not yet producing any oil in the country.
