MILAN (MF-Dow Jones)--Italian oil company Eni SpA (E) Chief Executive Paolo Scaroni said he is "certain" the company will return to doing business in Iraq as soon as safety conditions permit.
"What we know for sure is that Iraq produces 1.5 million barrels a day and it could be producing 5 million (a day)," he said Monday in Milan "...I am certain we will return to Iraq, but only with the necessary safety for our work force and above all in the north, where conditions seem to have improved the most," he added.
According to local newspaper Corriere della Sera Monday, Eni is looking at an imminent return to Iraq as soon as Baghdad approves a law governing oil revenue. Eni is keen on offering engineering support to Iraqi oil fields, the report said.
Eni's CEO Sunday said, at the International Energy Forum in Rome, that the oil-rich country represents an "opportunity."
Eni's indications of its plans to enter the country emerged earlier in the month after the Iraqi oil ministry said it was one of 35 international oil companies qualified to bid for future hydrocarbon contracts to develop one of the world's largest oil fields.
Scaroni will discuss possible Eni investment in Iraq with the country's Oil Minister Hussein al-Shahristani, who is currently attending the International Energy Forum in Rome, Corriere reported Monday.