Libya: Italy wants to resume its favoured trading relationship

The Italian government is pressing hard for the endorsement of the contracts which were signed between Italy and Libya following the 2008 bilateral Treaty of Friendship. In pursuit of this goal, Italy's Prime Minister Mario Monti and his entourage of diplomats, including Foreign Minister Giulio Terzi and Admiral Giampaolo Di Paola, and businessmen visited Libya on 21st January for talks. The Italian authorities are hopeful that new offers of aid to Libya – including the strengthening of the national police force and improving security - will enable the original agreements to be restored.

Libya will receive US$5 billion from Italy over the next 20 years, including several major contracts of which the largest single project is for the construction of the coastal highway.

Meanwhile, Italy's ENI has reported that bilateral oil sector relations are very cordial. Its CEO, Paolo Scaroni, reported that ENI's output has now returned to pre-war levels of 260,000 b/d. The company has also signed a memorandum of understanding to undertake €380 million worth of social projects in Libya.

For more news and expert analysis about Libya, please see Libya Focus and Libya Politics & Security.

© 2012 Menas Associates

Eni in talks with President Aliyev about CNG project

Eni's CEO, Paolo Scaroni, has met with Azerbaijan's President Ilham Aliyev, and several other government officials, to discuss Eni's come back to Azerbaijan's upstream sector, and the compressed natural gas (CNG) project. Eni plans to appeal for a permit that would enable the company to transport several billion cubic meters of Turkmen gas across the Caspian Sea to the coast of Azerbaijan, from where it would then be transported through an overland pipeline to other destination ports.

Scaroni has recently met with Russian, US and EU government officials to deliberate the financial and commercial aspects of the project which is the first of its kind to be studied in the Caspian region, and would permit a substantial reduction of gas flaring in Turkmenistan.

The technology involved allows transportation of high pressure gas (not liquefied) by specialist containment systems within the vessels, and allows feasibility of projects otherwise not achievable with traditional technologies such as transport by pipeline or liquefied natural gas (LNG).

To find out more about Eni please visit Eni's web site, which you can find here.

For more news and expert analysis about the Caspian region, please see Caspian Focus.

© 2010 Menas Associates