São Paulo – The Italian oil company Eni is going back to operating in Libya. According to information from the Kuwaiti news agency Kuna, the chief executive at the company, Paolo Scaroni, signed an agreement with the Arab country’s National Transitional Council last Monday (29th), in Benghazi, after Tripoli was taken over by the rebels fighting Muamar Kadafi’s regime. It provides for the reactivation of a gas pipeline that supplies Italy and for fuel to be supplied to the Libyan market in exchange for petroleum.
According to the Kuna, the company informed that the agreement creates a commitment to “creating the conditions for a rapid and complete recovery of Emi’s activities in Libya” and that all that is necessary will be done “to restart operations on the Greenstream pipeline.”
The agency added that the company will provide the Libyan people “with their needs of oil derivatives” and make an assessment of the Libyan oil infrastructure “until it is fully operational.”
Kuna highlights that Eni was the leading foreign oil producer operating in Libya up until the rebellion against Kadafi erupted, early this year. Ever since, activities have been suspended.
The agency underscores that the Italian premier, Silvio Berlusconi, announced that the agreement will be a means of supporting Libya in the post-Kadafi era. Before the conflict started, Berlusconi used to be one of the main allies of the Libyan government in the West. In 2008, the two countries signed a Treaty on Friendship, and later on the Italian premier visited Tripoli and Kadafi travelled to Rome.
The agreement supposedly put an end to the colonial leftovers that existed between the two countries and provided for payment of compensation by Italy and for investment in Libya, however the outburst of violence in the Arab country drove the Italians to announce its suspension. Libya was a colony of Italy’s from 1911 until World War 2.
End of embargo
Furthermore, according to news agency France Presse, the European Union should lift the sanctions imposed on Libyan ports and on 22 economic organizations in the country up until Friday. Due to Kadafi’s regime violent repression of the rebellion, the EU froze the assets of approximately 50 institutions and imposed an embargo on six Libyan port authorities, according to the agency.
The Libyan regime made various investments abroad using oil revenues. According to a report by the British newspaper Financial Times, there is now a dispute within the NTC over the control of the country’s sovereign fund, whose assets are estimated at US$ 65 billion.
*Translated by Gabriel Pomerancblum
