Libya Scrambles For Gas Supplies To Keep The Lights On

12 May 2023 Issue: 66 / 19 By: James Cockayne

With Libya’s key Mellitah gas processing plant offline since 1 May, NOC has been scrambling to pipe gas from eastern fields to the capital Tripoli in a bid to keep the lights on. Industrial users have been squeezed whilst exports to Italy remain at zero.

The giant 1.1bn cfd Mellitah gas processing complex west of Tripoli has been offline since 1 May to enable three-week “comprehensive renovation” of both the plant itself and the country’s two largest gas-condensate fields which supply it, offshore Bahr Essalam and Wafa on the Libyan border. All are operated by the Mellitah Oil & Gas JV grouping Eni with Libya’s NOC, with Mellitah also supplying the Greenstream pipeline linking the plant with Italy – Libya’s only gas export route.

The planned shutdown, timed to coincide with a relatively low domestic gas/power demand period between Ramadan (22 March-20 April) and the summer peak, comes after unplanned outages in both 2021 (MEES, 2 July 2021), and 2022 (MEES, 18 February). It also comes as Eni looks to advance $8bn plans to develop an additional 6tcf of offshore gas reserves for processing at Mellitah (MEES, 3 February). (CONTINUED - 1081 WORDS)