By: Ecofin Agency

Protesters who stormed Libya’s Mellitah oil and gas complex on Monday, July 27, in an attempt to stop gas exports to Italy had misunderstood how those exports are structured, according to the National Oil Corporation. The state-owned company issued its explanation on Wednesday, July 29.

No more than 10% of Eni’s contractual share is exported to Italy through the Greenstream pipeline, the NOC said in a statement reported by the Libya Observer.

The company explained how the supply agreement works. Under the contract, Eni receives a share of the natural gas and condensate produced from the Wafa fields in the Libyan desert and the offshore Bahr Essalam field in return for developing the two fields. During the summer, the NOC buys back 90% of that share to supply the domestic market. The remaining 10% is exported to Italy during that period.

Soaring domestic demand this summer has prompted the NOC to buy back nearly all of Eni’s share and redirect it to the domestic market. “Priority is given to domestic supply without breaching contractual obligations,” the company said.

The NOC also said minimum flows are maintained through Greenstream for technical reasons. Fully shutting down and later restarting the pipeline would pose major technical challenges, entail high costs and risk damaging the infrastructure. The disruption at the complex instead reduced gas supplies to Libyan power plants, worsening the power crisis the protesters were demonstrating against.

Exports Down 85% in a Decade

Libya’s gas exports to Europe have fallen sharply over the past decade. Flows through Greenstream dropped from nearly 700 million cubic feet per day in 2015 to less than 100 million in 2025, the Libya Tribune reported. Annual deliveries to Italy declined to about 1 billion cubic meters in 2025 from 1.4 billion in 2024, according to Arab business magazine Al Majalla.

Libya’s share of Europe’s gas supplies also fell to just 0.3% in 2025 from about 3% in the early 2010s, according to the Libya Tribune. The decline reflects rising domestic demand and recurring production disruptions. Greenstream has an annual capacity of 8 billion cubic meters.

To reverse the trend, Eni and the NOC are developing the Structures A&E project, which is scheduled to begin production in 2027 and eventually produce 750 million cubic feet per day, according to Eni. If the project remains on schedule, it could strengthen domestic supplies while helping revive exports to Italy.