Italian firm Eni has signed a deal with the NTC to restart oil and gas operations, increase operational stability around oil infrastructure and supply refined products to the NTC to meet domestic needs.
“The memorandum … is confirmation of the solid relations between ENI and the NTC who are evaluating various possible forms of cooperation to ensure the timely resumption of operations in the oil and gas sector,” ENI said in a company statement.
Under the terms of the Memorandum, Eni and NTC are committed to creating the conditions for a rapid and complete recovery of Eni’s activities in Libya and to doing all that is necessary to restart operations on the Greenstream pipeline, bringing gas from the Libyan coast to Italy.
The deal was struck after a meeting in the eastern city of Benghazi, a rebel stronghold, between the NTC and ENI Chief Executive Officer Paolo Scaroni, the first foreign oil chief to visit Libya since the rebels seized Tripoli.
Al Jazeera is reporting that security around Libya’s oil refineries has been tightened, as cohorts of the new Libyan National Army have been dispatched to defend key assets and clear remaining mines so that engineers can return to work.
In contrast to the fortunes of European and American firms with interests in Libya, the prospects for Chinese companies to take part in Libya’s reconstruction look dim, following the discovery of documents itemizing the sale of $200 million of arms to Gaddafi after the revolutionary war broke out in February this year and UN sanctions preventing arms sales were imposed on his regime.
Abdel Raham Busim, a Transitional National Council military spokesman, said documentation was still being collected and the new government was considering bringing legal action against Beijing, possibly via the UN.
Mr Busim said an invoice has been recovered from Libyan government files dating from July that lists $200 million worth of Chinese weapons including pistols, missiles and rocket launchers. Busim said it was unclear whether any of the weapons had been paid for or shipped, but that other evidence shows Chinese weapons were either shipped to Gaddafi’s forces via Algeria or taken from Algerian stockpiles that China later resupplied.
“It is not nice to have enemies. Maybe there could be a way that the situation can be resolved, but that will depend more on the Chinese government,” Mr Busim said.
Recently, Abdeljalil Mayouf of Agoco, a former rebel-held branch of the National Oil Company, said “we don’t have a problem with Western countries like the Italians, French and U.K. companies, but we may have some political issues with Russia, China and Brazil.”
Since Gaddafi’s downfall China has been lobbying hard to retain its current contracts in the country – where it was mainly focused on construction and infrastructure – and make the case for a greater role in the upstream industry.
Libya has Africa’s largest known oil reserves, totaling 46.4 billion barrels, plus natural gas reserves of 55 trillion cubic feet, both of which analysts believe could increase with a renewed bout of exploration.
China is the third largest importer of Libyan crude. Libyan oil production was reduced and eventually cut altogether during the six-month civil war.
