Eni Sells Stake in Giant Egyptian Field
Eni has agreed to sell to Rosneft a 30 percent participating interest in the Shourouk Concession, offshore Egypt, where the supergiant gas field Zohr is located. Eni, through its subsidiary IEOC, currently holds a 90 percent stake in the block following the recent sale of 10 percent to BP.
The agreed conditions with Rosneft include a consideration of $1,125 million and the pro quota reimbursement of past expenditures, which amount so far at approximately $450 million. In addition, Rosneft has an option to buy a further five percent stake under the same terms.
Eni sees the agreement as further confirming the success of its dual exploration model which, in parallel with an accelerated development of the hydrocarbons reserves, aims at early monetization of the value through the dilution of the high participating interest owned in huge exploration discoveries. With this transaction, in the last four years the model has generated a total cash of approximately $6.3 billion.
The Zohr field, located in the Shorouk Concession, was discovered by Eni in August 2015 and is the largest natural gas field ever found in the Mediterranean, with a total potential of 850 billion cubic meters of gas in place. The discovery is located at a depth of 1,450 meters (4,757 feet).
In February 2015, the authorization process for the development of field was completed, and first gas is expected by the end of 2017.
Eni has been present in Egypt since 1954 where it operates through IEOC Production BV. The equity production was about 200,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day in 2015.
Eni is active in the exploration, development and extraction of oil and natural gas, primarily in Italy, Algeria, Angola, Congo, Egypt, Ghana, Libya, Mozambique, Nigeria, Norway, Kazakhstan, the U.K., U.S. and Venezuela.
Some of the most important recent start-ups for Eni have been the:
• Goliat field in the Barents Sea in Norway
• Jangkrik project in Indonesia
• oil and gas development in the offshore Cape Three Points license in Ghana
• restart of the Kashagan field in Kazakhstan
• accelerated start-up of the giant Zohr discovery in offshore Egypt
• ongoing production start-ups at the discoveries in Block 15/06 in Angola