ENI Roars Back, Could Start Zohr Operations in 2016

Italy-headquartered ENI reportedly plans to start digging early next year in the "supergiant" Zohr gas field discovery off of Egypt. 

According to rumours and Italian reports, digging operations in the natural gas field would start in January 2016. 

Lapo Pistelli, Vice President of the company, said earlier this week that the new discovery could be just the beginning of other - possibly bigger - findings in even deeper waters around the Zohr discovery. ENI will explore for gas in the same field. 

On August 30, ENI announced it made a world class supergiant gas discovery at its Zohr Prospect, in the deep waters of Egypt. The discovery could hold a potential of 30 trillion cubic feet of lean gas in place covering an area of about 100 square kilometres.  

Zohr is the largest gas discovery ever made in Egypt and in the Mediterranean Sea.

EUROPE’S ENERGY SECURITY: SO WHAT?

Last Friday, the Vice-President of the European Commission for the Energy Union, Maroš Šefčovič, met with ENI’s CEO, Claudio Descalzi, in Milan.

‘During the meeting they discussed about energy security, the completion of the European internal energy market and about policies aimed at reducing CO2 emissions’ reads the note released by ENI.  

As the meeting suggests, the company might take back its centrality in increasing Europe’s energy security. Indeed, Descalzi’s meeting with Šefčovič in Milan underlines how ENI can cooperate with Brussels in several fields, from energy security to geopolitics.

Sergio Matalucci is an Associate Partner at Natural Gas Europe. He holds a BSc and MSc in Economics and Econometrics from Bocconi University, and a MA in Journalism from Aarhus University and City University London. He worked as a journalist in Italy, Denmark, the United Kingdom, and Belgium. Follow him on Twitter: @SergioMatalucci