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Italy's oil and gas major, Eni SpA expects its bunker-producing refinery in Livorno to resume full operations by Wednesday after trade unions removed pickets that had been blocking access to the facility for around 10 days, Reuters reports.

According to a company spokesperson, the refinery restarted its units on Friday and the fuel cycle units and lubricants cycle line were back in production yesterday. Product movements and sales as well as lubricants blending resumed on Saturday.

Trade unions had placed pickets at the refinery for about 10 days in protest against possible job cuts at the plant, which Eni was reported to be interested in selling. However, the decision was made on Friday to remove pickets and suspend a strike planned for September 24th after Eni promised to continue investing in the refinery and maintain employment levels there.

The Livorno plant, which has a refining capacity of 84,000 barrels per day and a conversion index of 11.4%, mainly manufactures fuel oil for bunkering, gasolines and lubricant bases.

The facility links directly with the local harbour and storage sites by means of two pipelines that optimize the intake, handling and distribution of products.