THE Italian oil and gas firm ENI announced on Tuesday it has reached an agreement with Libya on a $5,5-billion scheme to extract gas off the Libyan coast and build a 600km pipeline between Libya and Malta. The deal, between Eni’s local subsidiary Agip Nord Africa bv and Libya’s state-owned firm, NOC, was concluded on Monday at a meeting in Tripoli between ENI representatives and the Libyan government, it said in a statement. ENI will purchase eight billion cubic metres of gas per year. Production should start by 2004.