By Sami Zaptia.
London, 1 March 2020:
Mellitah Oil and Gas, a JV between Libya’s National Oil Corporation and Italy’s Eni Oil, announced yesterday that it had successfully defended its case against POSH Offshore services before the Dutch court of Amsterdam.
POSH was one of the companies subcontracted by the main contractor STX implementing the Gaza Floating Reservoir project to replace the old Sloug FSO for its offshore Bouri field. The Gaza FSO was built at a cost of US$ 424.78m. The Bouri oil reservoir is the biggest in the Mediterranean region and was Libya’s first subsea project. The field is in the block NC-41.
Mellitah reported that after several deliberations and the submission by it of all the necessary documents, and the assignment of a law firm, the case was declared invalid on 26 February 2020. Posh had frozen Mellitah’s bank accounts in the Netherlands during the case.
It will be recalled STX Offshore was selected by Mellitah to construct the FSO vessel Gaza which is an ultra-large vessel with a length of 324m and a width of 51m with an oil storage capacity of 1.5 million barrels.
The Bouri field is operated through the joint venture Mellitah Oil and Gas between Italian energy giant ENI, which holds a 30 percent stake, and Libya’s state National Oil Corporation (NOC) with a 70 percent stake.
