The Chairman of the Board of Directors of the National Oil Corporation, Farhat bin Qadara, said that the agreement will extend for 25 years for a production capacity of 800 million cubic feet of gas per day.
The CEO of the Italian energy company Eni, Claudio Descalzi, said on Saturday that the company and the National Oil Corporation in Libya signed an agreement to produce gas worth eight billion dollars.
Descalzi added in a press conference that the agreement, which was signed within the framework of Italian Prime Minister Giorga Meloni’s visit to Tripoli, will also include projects for carbon capture and solar energy.
The Chairman of the Board of Directors of the National Oil Corporation, Farhat bin Qadara, said that the agreement will extend for a period of 25 years for a production capacity of 800 million cubic feet of gas per day.
European countries have increasingly sought over the past year to replace Russian gas with energy supplies from North Africa and elsewhere due to the war in Ukraine.
Italy has already taken the initiative to obtain gas from Algeria, and established a new strategic partnership there that includes investment to help the state energy company, Sonatrach, stop a decline in production that has lasted for years.
In an indication of the political divisions in Libya, the Minister of Oil in the government of Dabaiba, Mohamed Aoun, rejected any deal concluded by the National Oil Corporation with Italy, and said in a video clip on the ministry’s website that such agreements must be concluded by the ministry.
Dbeiba appointed the head of the National Oil Corporation, Bin Qadara, last year, and Dbeiba’s interim government was formed in 2021 through a UN-supported process.
