Eni restarts Libya drilling after five years using Saipem’s rig

October 6, 2025, by Dragana Nikše

Eni North Africa, the affiliate of Italy’s oil and gas giant Eni, has resumed exploration activities offshore Libya following a five-year pause.

As reported by Libya’s National Oil Corporation (NOC), re-entering the exploratory well C1-16/4 (also known as BESS-3) at Block 16/4 marks Eni’s return to the country after a five-year break caused by the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.

Back in March 2020, Ensco‘s 4005 rig started drilling the C1-16/4 well, reaching a depth of 1,012 feet. The operations were then stopped due to the pandemic, and the well was secured and temporarily abandoned. Furthermore, the rig was decommissioned a month later.

Ensco’s rig has now been replaced with Saipem’s Scarabeo-9, a sixth-generation semi-submersible drilling rig of Frigstad D90 design. As disclosed by NOC, the rig is in the process of re-entering the well to complete drilling operations, aiming to reach the final planned depth of 10,520 feet, or around 3,200 meters.

The exploratory well C1-16/4 is situated in Contract Area D, previously known as MN 41, northwest of Libya. It lies at a water depth of about 743 meters, approximately 95 kilometers from the Libyan coast and around 15 kilometers from the Bahr Es Salam gas field.

Another giant recently returned to Libya, this time after a 10-year pause – ExxonMobil. A few months ago, the U.S. giant signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with NOC to conduct a geological and geophysical study of four offshore blocks near the country’s northwest coast and the Sirte Basin to identify the presence of hydrocarbons.