Frattini Says Italy to Keep its Top Spot in Libyan Energy Sector

Italy will maintain its pre-eminent position in Libya's energy production sector, Foreign Minister Franco Frattini pledged on Saturday.

"Italy will maintain its first place. We have done so and we will continue to do so," Frattini stressed when quizzed on the ability of Libya's former colonial power to hang on to its position in the face of fresh interest from elsewhere, notably France, following the fall of Moammar Gadhafi.

"We have confirmed our commitment; in October we will be in a position to resume production, that which was under the control of Eni," the Italian energy giant, the minister said on the margins of a political and economic forum in Cernobbio, on the banks of Lake Como in northern Italy.

Eni head Paolo Scaroni said on Wednesday that natural gas supplies would resume on October 15 through the Greenstream pipeline which links Libya to Italy.

The resumption of the oil industry, also paralyzed by the rebel uprising which toppled Gadhafi, is more complicated Scaroni said.

On Thursday Libya's new National Transition Council assured there would be no political favoritism in the distribution of oil contracts, denying that France had already signed a deal promising it 35 percent of Libyan oil.

Frattini remained sanguine about the interest shown by Paris and in other national capitals.

"We see that there are other countries, like Russia, that want to confirm their oil contracts, I take note of this, I don't see anything strange about it," he said.

Before the uprising in Libya Eni, in which the Italian state holds a third share, was the main foreign hydrocarbon producer operating in Libya.

In order to maintain that situation Rome signed a deal with the new Libyan authorities on Monday.