Italy lost Libya in 2011 when Gaddafi was forcibly deposed at the hands of Sarkozy's France. France has never digested our relevance, our privileged lane in Libya. The final push for Italy is the signing, on 27 November last, of the Turkish-Libyan treaty on the jurisdictional areas of the Mediterranean, which Serraj announced the entry into force on 8 December. Turkey and Libya have thus transformed the six hundred and more kilometers of Mediterranean that separate the Turkish coast of Bodrum and Marmara from the Libyan coast of Derna and Tobruk into an exclusive economic zone, ignoring the presence of Crete and the Greek islands of the Dodecanese.
The agreement grants Turkey almost exclusive rights on prospecting for gas and oil, putting Eni's offshore concessions at serious risk. And the threat doesn't stop with Libya. The agreement also indirectly jeopardizes Eni's prospecting in the waters of Cyprus, effectively blocking the possible construction of the gas pipelines essential to bring gas from new fields to Europe. In addition to the gigantic Zohr well, discovered by Eni in front of Egypt, and the Aphrodite, Leviathan and Tamar already active in the waters of Cyprus and Israel according to some estimates, that stretch of the Mediterranean hides gas reserves for over 3 thousand 500 billion cubic meters. But in order to identify them, we have to deal with Turkey which has been committed for years to contesting the exclusive economic zones agreed by Cyprus, Egypt and Israel in order to divide up its research rights. Rights that Erdogan would like to share with the Northern Republic of Cyprus, the fictitious state not recognized by the UN, created in the territories occupied militarily by Ankara in 1974 ".
Losing Libya is an epochal failure of Italian foreign policy
The exchange between the two countries is in danger, which stood at 2018 billion euros in 5,4, according to Quotidiano Energia, of which 88,8% in the energy sector for an amount of over 4,1 billion Euros which make the North African country the fifth supplier of our Peninsula.
Libya has, in fact, the ninth largest oil reserves in the world, around 48 billion barrels, according to estimates by the US Energy Information Administration. The 2018 data from Noc, the National Oil Corporation that controls all the country's reserves, recorded an average production of 1,107 million barrels per day in 2018 and an average turnover of 24,4 billion dollars with a 78% increase on annual basis, according to a note from the same company. This is the highest level of production and revenue since 2013, as recalled by the president of the Noc Mustafa Sanalla.
Starting from this year, however, there is a certain slowdown: in January, according to the official website of the Noc, the general revenues deriving from the sale of oil and derivatives, in addition to taxes and fees received from concessions, was slightly higher at 1,6 billion dollars, down more than 680 million over the previous month (-30%). Same goes in February: revenue was $ 1,26 billion, over $ 330 million less month-over-month (-21%). "The drop in oil revenues is attributed to adverse weather conditions that affected exports from the port of Es Sider, in addition to the recent blockade of armed militias and the force majeure in Sharara until March 4, 2019", admits Noc highlighting, through the words of President Sanalla, the possibility of increase production this year “to 1,4 million barrels” in the event of a stabilization of the situation. And in fact, according to the Nova agency, crude oil production in Libya would "rise to 1,2 million barrels per day in April," according to President Sanallah himself. The latter noted that the increase in production is linked precisely to the resumption of activities in the al Sharara complex, in southern Libya, "which stood at 280 thousand barrels of oil per day".
ENI in Libya
Of course, Italy is also closely interested in the role that Eni plays in the country, present since 1959 and in tandem with the national company Noc, it represents 70% of Libyan national production. The latest Eni production figures in Libya speak of 270-280 thousand barrels per day, while in 2017 the record was reached of 384 thousand barrels per day. Without forgetting the fundamental task of the Greenstream pipeline which collects the gas from the two fields of Bahr Essalam and Wafa and then lands in Gela, Sicily.
Eni's Libyan production “is worth about 15% of the Italian group's production. About a third of the group's natural gas is Libyan ”. As explained by the group led by the CEO, Claudio Descalzi, the activity is carried out in the Mediterranean offshore in front of Tripoli and in the Libyan desert for a total developed and undeveloped area of 24.673 square kilometers (12.336 square kilometers at Eni's altitude) . The exploration and development activity is grouped into 6 contracts. At onshore level we have Area A, including the former Concession 82 (Eni's interest 50%); Area B, ex-Concession 100 (Bu Attifel) and Block NC 125 (Eni's interest 50%); Area E, with the El Feel (Elephant) field (Eni's interest 33,3%); Area F, with Block 118 (Eni's interest 50%); and Area D, with Block NC 169, as part of the Western Libyan Gas Project (Eni's interest 50%).
The ENI Offshore in Libya
In the offshore Eni is present in Area C, with the Bouri oil field (Eni's interest 50%) and in Area D, with Block NC 41, part of the Western Libyan Gas Project. In the exploratory phase, Eni is instead operator in the Onshore A and B and offshore D Contractual Areas.
The GREENSTREAM pipeline
As mentioned, Libya is also gas. As ENI points out on its site, "the pipeline, consisting of a 520-kilometer line, crosses the Mediterranean Sea by linking the Mellitah treatment plant on the Libyan coast with Gela in Sicily, the entry point into the national network of gas pipelines. The pipeline capacity amounts to approximately 8 billion cubic meters / year. The supply of natural gas in Libya in 2017 was equal to 4,76 billion cubic meters ". Eni confirmed that activities in Mellitah are continuing regularly. The military actions that took place around the area took place "more than 25 kilometers away from the operational structures and were directed to an old Zwara militia barracks", reported the same Italian company that Eni manages in a joint venture at 50 % with the Libyan National Oil Company (NOC) is located about 22 km east of Zuwara and consists of oil and gas treatment plants.
Before the latest clashes in the country occurred, Eni was also active in exploration activities in Libya (extended until 2019). The same company remembers it on its website, highlighting, among other things, a positive outcome of the explorations "in the contractual area D with a new gas and condensate discovery" located near the production fields of Bouri and Bahr Essalam.
ENI defends itself in Libya
The plants are managed and protected by local staff (often foreign contractors) in coordination with the Italian one. And where man does not arrive there is the possibility of monitoring the situation with new technologies, the use of drones and robots that provide command and control centers with an always complete and real picture of the situation of oil wells. Eni is at the forefront of this transformation thanks to its new super computer HPC4, the most powerful industrial computer in the world, enabling more refined exploration techniques thanks to next generation analytics. But there are also new techniques for simplifying the reservoir drilling process. This model manages to reduce the need for human inputs, increasing security and significantly reducing costs by up to 50 percent, as well as providing greater security in difficult territories or where conflicts are taking place such as in Libya.