---
title: "Italy inks gas deals with Libya’s contested government"
type: "post"
post_id: "3777"
slug: "italy-inks-gas-deals-with-libyas-contested-government"
canonical: "https://pennyforyourthoughts2.ca/2023/01/30/italy-inks-gas-deals-with-libyas-contested-government/"
markdown_url: "https://pennyforyourthoughts2.ca/2023/01/30/italy-inks-gas-deals-with-libyas-contested-government.md"
json_url: "https://pennyforyourthoughts2.ca/2023/01/30/italy-inks-gas-deals-with-libyas-contested-government.json"
txt_url: "https://pennyforyourthoughts2.ca/2023/01/30/italy-inks-gas-deals-with-libyas-contested-government.txt"
published: "2023-01-30T20:12:49+00:00"
modified: "2023-01-30T20:12:49+00:00"
author: "penny2"
categories:
  - "Uncategorized"
tags:
  - "Africa"
  - "Italy"
  - "Russia"
  - "Turkey"
  - "US"
site_name: "PFYT2"
publisher: ""
language: "en-US"
generator: "easyPress Markdown"
generator_version: "1.0.6"
---
**This is an interesting deal considering the government in Libya is “contested” at this time.**

[**DW**](https://www.dw.com/en/italy-inks-gas-deals-with-libyas-contested-government/a-64546745)

> **Italy’s Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has signed a gas deal worth billions on a visit to Libya**. **The plan is for Italian and Libyan energy giants to jointly develop two offshore gas fields.**
> 
> Italian Prime Minister [Giorgia Meloni](https://www.dw.com/en/giorgia-meloni/t-63245446) visited Tripoli on Saturday for talks with the internationally-recognized government in the Libyan capital.
> 
> **She became the first Western leader to visit the government in [Libya](https://www.dw.com/en/libya/t-19016309) since it missed its late 2021 target to hold national elections [amid political turmoil in the country](https://www.dw.com/en/libyans-increasingly-frustrated-with-politics-rising-prices-foreign-interference/a-62402038).**

Major offshore gas deal signed
------------------------------

> During the visit, the two countries’ oil companies signed a [gas deal](https://www.dw.com/en/turkeys-operation-in-libya-targeting-gas-reserves/a-51883874) worth around $8 billion (roughly €7.5 billion), calling it the largest single investment in Libya’s energy sector in more than two decades.
> 
> **Italy’s ENI and the Libyan National Oil Corporation (NOC) plan to cooperate on the construction of two offshore gas fields off Libya’s northern coast. ENI said in a statement that output would begin in 2026 and reach a plateau of 750 million cubic feet per day.**
> 
> ![](https://i0.wp.com/pennyforyourthoughts2.ca/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/image-28.png?resize=580%2C326&ssl=1)ENI CEO Claudio Descalzi and NOC chairman Farhat Begdara signed the deal at a ceremony **also attended by Meloni and the head of Libya’s UN-brokered but contested national unity government, Abdel Hamid Dbeibah.**
> 
> “***This agreement will enable important investments in Libya’s energy sector, contributing to local development and job creation while strengthening ENI’s role as a leading operator in the country,” Descalzi said.***
> 
> Meloni called the deal “significant and historic,” saying “Libya is clearly for us a strategic economic partner.”
> 
> Like several other European countries, [Italy has been looking for alternative sources of gas and oil](https://www.dw.com/en/how-can-european-countries-slash-their-gas-consumption/a-62534625), having relied in the past on purchases from Russia until the sanctions following Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine. Meloni was also in Algeria, penning similar gas deals, earlier in the week.
> 
> ## Libyan oil minister questions the deal
> 
> But **Saturday’s deal showed rifts in the rival Libyan administrations in the east and west, as had previous oil deals between Tripoli and Ankara.**
> 
> **So this puts Italy in a very similar situation to Turkey.**
> 
> The rival government in the east considers the Tripoli government illegitimate and by extension the commercial deals it strikes with foreign states as well.
> 
> For most of the past decade, **rival governments in Tripoli and in the east of the country have been vying for control** since the NATO-backed uprising that ousted dictator Moammar Gadhafi.
> 
> ## Security tight, government’s grip looser
> 
> Meloni landed at Mitiga airport, the only functioning airport in Tripoli at present, amid tight security. Her foreign and interior ministers, Antonio Tajani and Matteo Piantedosi, accompanied her.
> 
> She met with the leader of the UN-brokered government Dbeiba and held talks with Mohamed Younis Menfi, who chairs Libya’s ceremonial presidential council.
> 
> Echoing comments she had made in Algeria, Meloni said that while Italy wanted to increase its presence in the region, **it was not seeking a “predatory” role but rather wanted to help African nations “grow and become richer.”**
> 
> **Italy is acting in a similar manner to Russia in this regard**.
> 
> **High-ranking diplomatic visits to Africa have been in sharp focus recently, not least as Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov** made a pair of tours of the continent and as the US then sent a delegation of its own, with President Joe Biden planning to visit later.