MILAN, Italy - Eni (
NYSE:ENI,
Stock Forum) CEO Paolo Scaroni has pressed Libya's interim prime minister, Abdullah al-Thinni, on increasing the Italian gas and oil company's production.
An Eni statement Monday said that Scaroni emphasized that Eni's gas production is critical to generate electricity for domestic consumption and is of “growing importance” to Italy's gas supply security.
Eni is the largest international oil company operating in Libya, with a current production of about 250,000 barrels of oil equivalent a day. That is below the 280,000 barrels a day it produced before the 2011 civil war temporarily halted production.
An attempt by a militia to sell a shipload of crude in defiance of Tripoli fueled a political crisis and led to the removal of the previous prime minister.