H.E Abdel Fattah El-Sisi, President of the Arab Republic of Egypt and Claudio Descalzi, the CEO of Italian major, Eni, met to discuss ways to boost Egypt’s natural gas production, exports to Europe and renewable energy deployment.
Attended by Mustafa Madbouly, the Prime Minister of Egypt and Tarek El-Molla, Egypt’s Minister of Petroleum & Mineral Resources, the meeting explored how increased cooperation between Egypt and Eni can enable the north African country to boost natural gas production and liquefied natural gas (LNG) exports to Europe.
Leveraging the Damietta liquefaction plant and both producing projects and future discoveries, Eni has committed to helping Egypt expand its oil and gas production and LNG exports to Europe.
The meeting comes at a time when Europe is seeking alternative energy suppliers to replace its traditional and primary gas supplier, Russia, over the Ukraine crisis; and as Egypt seeks to boost hydrocarbon energy monetization for economic growth.
The discussion also follows Eni playing a crucial role in expanding Egypt’s hydrocarbons sector in recent years at the back of the discovery of the Zohr gas field – Egypt’s and Mediterranean’s largest gas discovery to date – and various exploration and infrastructure development campaigns. Recently, Eni – which produces 60% of Egypt’s gas – secured five new exploration licenses in Egypt’s prolific basins.
The Egyptian president and the CEO of Eni also agreed to scale up collaboration in energy efficiency and decarbonization initiatives with the Italian firm agreeing to help the country to deploy 10 GW of new solar and wind energy capacity in the forthcoming years.