Mubadala Petroleum and Italy’s Eni have signed an agreement to purchase a 10 per cent stake in the Egyptian Shorouk concession. 

 

The signing ceremony was presided over by His Highness Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the UAE Armed Forces, and Paolo Gentiloni, Prime Minister of Italy. 

 

The stake in the offshore Shorouk concession encompasses the giant Zohr gas field located in the Mediterranean Sea. 

 

The agreement was signed by Khaldoon Khalifa Al Mubarak, Group Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director of Mubadala Investment Company, on behalf of Mubadala Petroleum and Claudio Descalzi, Chief Executive Officer of Eni. The signing ceremony was held in Abu Dhabi, UAE. 

 

The signing ceremony was also attended by Sheikh Mansour Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Presidential Affairs.

 

Eni is operator with currently 60 percent interest in the project and other partners in the concession are BP with 10 percent interest and Rosneft with 30 percent interest. 

 

The completion of the transaction is subject to the satisfaction of certain standard conditions, including receiving approvals from the relevant Egyptian government authorities.

 

Musabbeh Al Kaabi, Chief Executive Officer of Petroleum & Petrochemicals, Mubadala Investment Company, and Chairman of Mubadala Petroleum, said: “This is an important and attractive investment for Mubadala, adding a world-class asset to our portfolio with long-term cash flows. We are joining a strong partnership with Eni as operator, who has delivered the project in record time and with the full support of the Egyptian authorities. This is an investment in Egypt in a project that will help meet the country’s growing energy demand while it is reshaping the energy sector and opening new opportunities across the full energy value chain.”

 

Descalzi said: “We are pleased to be working with Mubadala and welcome them into the partnership for the Shorouk concession. This represents a further signal about the strength and quality of this world-class asset developed by Eni.”

 

The Zohr field was discovered by Eni in August 2015 and is the largest natural gas field ever found in the Mediterranean, with a total potential of up to 30 trillion cubic feet of gas in place. The field is located approximately 190 km north of Port Said in waters approximately 1,500m deep. Production in the first phase of the Zohr gas field commenced in December 2017. - TradeArabia News Service