ENI in UAE offshore but sells 10% reserve to Egypt

Italian energy giant Eni is entering in the United Arab Emirates and ''in exchange'' is giving Abu Dhabi a majority stake in the Egyptian Zohr gas field. The company obtained two long-term concessions in the UAE offshore worth 875 million dollars. It also sold for 934 million dollars 10% of the giant gas field off the coast of Egypt to UAE investment group Mubdala.

The deal enabled the Italian group, on the one hand, to reach its aim of going down to 50% of its stake in Zohr, maintaining the relative majority compared to other partners (Rosneft and Bp), and on the other hand to step for the first time into a country with one of the most significant reserves of hydrocarbons in the world, explained the CEO Claudio Descalzi, to widen the group's presence in the Middle East, ''in line with its ''expansion strategy''.