By George Grant.
London, 20 August:
Italian oil giant Eni has denied reports that it is scaling down operations in Libya on account . . .[restrict]ongoing concerns with regards to the political and security environment.
Unnamed sources at the National Oil Company have recently been cited in certain Arabic-language papers claiming that Eni was moving part of its investments from Libya to Egypt, believing the latter to be a safer business bet.
“The speculations reported by some Libyan media outlets, regarding a shift in a portion of Eni’s investments from Libya to Egypt due to the uncertain political situation, are false and without any foundation”, an Eni spokesman told the Libya Herald today.
Prior to last year’s revolution, Eni was the biggest foreign oil company in Libya, and produced 280,000 barrels of oil per day (bpd).
Having halted production during the war, the company was one of the first back into Libya, resuming operations in September 2011.
Eni is now producing around 240,000 bpd, equating to roughly 85 per cent of prewar levels. [/restrict]
