MILAN/TRIPOLI: Protesters at the Mellitah terminal in western Libya are pressuring Italian co-owner Eni to halt gas exports to Italy, Eni Chief Executive Paolo Scaroni told Italian radio yesterday.
Minority Amazigh, or Berbers, have been inside the port for more than a week, demanding more political rights.
Mellitah is co-owned by ENI and Libya’s state-oil firm National Oil Corp (NOC).
“The Mellitah terminal... is under attack by demonstrators who are pushing us to completely halt exports to Italy,” Paolo Scaroni told Radio RaiUno.
Munir Abu Saud, head of the oil workers’ union in Mellitah, confirmed new tensions in the terminal after an initial deadline by the protesters expired on Tuesday without their demands having been met.
“People are angry. There are negotiations to extend the deadline again to Sunday,” he told Reuters. An oil official said protesters might close the gas pipeline feeding the port.
Reuters
