Key Takeaways
- Eni and Libya’s NOC have launched a gas compression project at the Bahr Essalam offshore field
- The project will add around 800 million cubic metres of gas per year
- Output will serve both Libya’s domestic power sector and gas exports to Italy
Italian oil major, Eni, and Libya’s National Oil Corporation (NOC) have brought a major offshore gas compression project into production, marking a significant step in the country’s push to maintain and grow gas output.
Mellitah Oil & Gas, the joint venture between Eni and the NOC, announced the successful start-up of the Sabratha Compression Project, a key offshore development designed to sustain and increase gas output from the Bahr Essalam field, located about 100 kilometres off Libya’s coast.
Libya has long grappled with declining output from ageing offshore fields as reservoir pressure drops over time.
The project is expected to offset the natural decline of the offshore field while increasing gas supplies for Libya’s domestic power sector and exports to Italy through the GreenStream pipeline. The two companies said the start-up also demonstrated their ability to deliver complex offshore work under difficult operating conditions.
The Sabratha platform sits at the centre of Libya’s primary gas export corridor, making its continued performance critical to the country’s energy supply commitments.
What the project involves
The Sabratha Compression Project involves the installation of a new 1,600-tonne compression module on the Sabratha platform, equipped with new compression trains with a total capacity of around 440 million standard cubic feet per day.
The new facilities allow production to continue under lower reservoir pressure, increasing gas output by around 800 million cubic metres per year, in addition to associated condensates. The engineering, procurement, construction, and installation contract — valued at $217 million — was awarded to the Antonini Group. Gas processed through the Sabratha platform flows to the Mellitah onshore treatment complex before entering domestic supply networks or the GreenStream pipeline to Italy.
GreenStream, jointly owned by Eni North Africa and the NOC, consists of a gas compression station at Mellitah, an offshore pipeline of approximately 510 kilometres, and a receiving terminal in Gela, Sicily.
Libya’s wider gas ambition
The Sabratha project is one of three major gas developments Eni is advancing in Libya simultaneously.
Eni’s broader plan focuses on maintaining offshore production through the Sabratha Compression project, recovering associated gas currently flared through the Bouri Gas Utilization Project, and developing new offshore fields through the Structures A&E facilities — described as the largest energy investment in Libya in the last twenty years.
The Structures A&E development, led by Mellitah Oil & Gas, is expected to deliver up to 750 million standard cubic feet of gas per day once online. The combined pipeline of projects reflects a deepening of the decades-old partnership between Eni and the NOC at a time when Europe is actively seeking to reduce dependence on Russian gas.
Libya’s overall plan is linked to investments estimated at around $10 billion and aims to progressively increase the availability of gas for the Libyan domestic market and, in the medium term, for exports to Italy through GreenStream.
