By: Oil review Africa

Egyptian Oil Minister, Karim Badawi, and Eni's chief operating officer for global natural resources, Guido Brusco, were also present at the meeting.

Developing gas hub

Discussions revolved around Eni's broad asset portfolio in the country that compises onshore as well as offshore. The company operates in Egypt through its subsidiary IEOC. The country's central role in developing a gas hub in the eastern Mediterranean was also highlighted given the presence of important gas processing and LNG export infrastructures in the region.

Eni has already offloaded its first LNG cargo in Piombino from Egypt’s Damietta liquefaction plant in 2023.

Explorators such as Eni might also make use of invaluable data that have been recently released from Egypt deepwaters by geoservices provider PGS, with one of the latest being the area between the Nile delta and the Herodotus Basin.

Descalzi emphasised the company's decarbonisation and energy transition path as well, including methane emissions reduction, energy efficiency solutions and renewables.

The visit was also an opportunity to recall the 70th anniversary of Eni's presence in Egypt, which was, in 1954, the first country outside of Italy with which the company began working.