Italian energy major Eni (BIT: ENI; NYSE: E) has completed construction of the Bouri Gas Utilization Project offshore Libya and begun start-up procedures, aiming to recover gas previously flared at the Bouri oil field, the company announced on October 19.
The project, operated by Mellitah Oil & Gas, Eni's joint venture with Libya's state-owned National Oil Corporation (NOC), is intended to capture associated gas from the offshore concession and deliver it to the country's gas-processing and distribution infrastructure.
Once fully operational, the installation is expected to recover approximately 700mn standard cubic metres of natural gas annually, strengthening supplies for Libya's power stations. Eni said the additional production would also support gas availability for exports to Europe through the GreenStream pipeline, without specifying export volumes.
The project includes approximately 28 kilometres of subsea pipelines linking Bouri's DP3 and DP4 platforms with the Sabratha platform, allowing recovered gas to be transported onwards to the Mellitah processing complex, according to engineering contractor Saipem.
Eni estimates that capturing gas previously burned off at Bouri could reduce annual greenhouse gas emissions by approximately 1.5mn tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent once the project reaches normal operations. The actual reductions have yet to be established.
The development could help offset declining Libyan gas exports through GreenStream, the approximately 520-kilometre subsea pipeline connecting Mellitah with Gela in Sicily. The pipeline was built with annual transport capacity of 8bn cubic metres, expandable to 11bn, but exports to Italy fell to an estimated 1bn cubic metres in 2025 from 1.4bn in 2024 and 2.5bn in 2023, according to Agenzia Nova.
The principal constraint has been the availability of gas for export, rather than GreenStream's nominal transport capacity. Recovering previously flared gas could increase domestic supply and potentially release additional volumes for export without requiring new exploration.
Eni is separately developing the proposed $8bn Structures A&E project with the NOC to bring two offshore gas fields into production, with planned combined capacity of 750mn standard cubic feet per day. Its March 2026 development schedule targets start-up in 2028. Both projects form part of efforts to expand Libya's gas supplies through existing processing and export infrastructure.
The Bouri development also supports the NOC's stated ambition to eliminate routine upstream gas flaring by 2030. While construction has been completed and start-up procedures are under way, sustained gas recovery, additional exports and the projected emissions reductions have not yet been independently demonstrated.