The National Oil Corporation (NOC) Chairperson Mostafa Sanalla met with the Italian ambassador to Libya Giuseppe Maria Buccino on Wednesday to discuss boosting joint cooperation in the field of energy.
Italian companies are important partners of the NOC, mainly the giant multinational oil and gas company Eni.
The Mellitah oil and gas plant, jointly operated by Eni and the NOC, supplies Italy with 15 percent of its gas needs through the Greenstream pipeline.
Italy’s Eni has recently acquired a controlling stake in BP’s Libyan assets while France’s Total is already a big player. Libya has the largest proven oil reserves in Africa and supplies crude, known for being cheaper and easier to refine.
With the fractured politics of Libya, different countries have congregated around different leaders. On one side, there are France, Russia, Egypt, and the UAE which support the Libyan National Army Commander Khalifa Haftar, while Italy, Qatar, and Turkey support the UN-backed Faiez al-Sarraj.
