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Libyan gas to Italy stops completely

24 June 2024

 

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Libyan gas supplies to Italy through the Greenstream pipeline have completely stopped and natural gas available to the state-owned General Electricity Company of Libya (Gecol) has become very limited, according to industry sources.

The decline in gas availability is due to unplanned work and maintenance, sources said.

Earlier this month, Italian oil and gas company Eni warned that gas flows from Libya to Italy using the Greenstream pipeline would fall and could be reduced to zero.

Eni’s subsidiary, Eni North Africa, published a statement on 12 June saying that the reduction in flows would start on 13 June.

At the time, it said it expected normal flows to resume on 19 June. That has not happened.

It is not clear why normal flows have not resumed yet.

The Greenstream pipeline is a natural gas submarine pipeline running from western Libya to the island of Sicily in Italy.

The pipeline can transport 8 billion cubic metres a day (cm/d) of gas.

In March, it was reported that Libya’s gas exports to Italy – all of which go to Italy via the Greenstream pipeline – had fallen to just 137 million cm/d for February, one of the lowest figures since Libya’s uprising in 2011.

The figure was less than half of the 300 million cm/d it carried in March 2023.

The Greenstream pipeline is 540 kilometres long and runs from Mellitah in Libya to Gela in Sicily.

It is located in water depths of over 1,100 metres. It includes the Mellitah compressor station and the Gela reception terminal.

The gas transported by the pipeline comes from the Bahr Essalam offshore field, the Bouri fields and the Wafa field.

https://image.digitalinsightresearch.in/uploads/NewsArticle/11985583/main2434.jpg
Wil Crisp

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