PARIS: Five international oil companies have returned to Libya and are working on getting operations running again, the head of the ruling interim council’s stabilization team, Aref Ali Nayed, said on Friday.
The five companies include Italy’s ENI, Nayed told reporters at a meeting in Paris with donor groups and foreign experts, adding: "These are companies that have assets in the country."
Libyan oil output should return to pre-crisis levels by the end of 2012 at the latest, the top executive of Italian energy group Eni was quoted as saying in the Wall Street Journal on Friday.
Chief Executive Paolo Scaroni also reiterated Eni’s plans to reopen the Libyan Greenstream pipeline by Oct. 15.
Eni expects it will take between 12 and 18 months for Libya to get back to its pre-war production levels, the paper said. Eni is the biggest foreign oil operator in Libya.
