Eni interested to take a slice in Qatari LNG expansion, CEO says

Italy’s Eni has shown interest in buying a stake in Qatar Petroleum’s giant expansion project as the firm also looks to expand its LNG business, according to the company’s chief executive.

Qatar Petroleum recently took a final investment decision on the North Field East project which includes building four “mega trains” with a capacity of 8 million tonnes per year in the Ras Laffan complex.

This phase will increase Qatar’s LNG production capacity from 77 to 110 mtpa but QP has plans for the second phase as well as additional expansions.

QP said the costs of this expansion project would reach $28.75 billion.

Eni’s CEO Claudio Descalzi told analysts during the firm’s fourth-quarter conference call on Friday that the firm held talks with QP regarding the expansion for at least “three, four years.”

“So, we’re clearly interested. We think that is a good project,” he said.

Moreover, Descalzi said the investment is “much less” than forecasted at the very beginning.

“So, they’ve been able to finalize a very good contract,” he said.

In the meantime, Saipem, in which Eni owns a 30.5 percent stake, has won a $1.7 billion offshore contract for the expansion.

Descalzi said Eni’s investment would depend on several conditions saying he could not tell the exact percentage because it doesn’t just depend on Eni, but also on QP.

“We showed interest and we’ll see in the future what is going to happen,” he said.

Eni targets LNG growth

Besides the Qatari investment, Eni is also looking to boost its LNG volumes.

The Italian firm expects its contractual LNG volumes to exceed 14 million tonnes per year by 2024, a 45 percent growth compared to 2020 levels.

Descalzi said Eni’s new projects in Indonesia, Nigeria, Angola, Mozambique, and Egypt, where it restarted the Damietta plant, would drive this growth.

To remind, Eni and its partners on Monday shipped the first cargo from the Damietta plant in Egypt since 2012.

The facility stopped operations in 2012 due to declining domestic production, but new gas finds allowed the partners to restart the plant.

Most Popular

LNG carrier arrives to load first LNG Canada cargo

The 174,000-cbm GasLog Glasgow has arrived at the LNG Canada jetty in Kitimat to load the first LNG cargo produced at the Shell-led terminal, an LNG Canada spokesperson told LNG Prime on Saturday.

Knutsen, Shell name ninth LNG newbuild

Norwegian shipowner Knutsen and UK-based energy giant Shell have named the ninth and final LNG carrier in a series of 174,000-cbm vessels.

BP seals LNG SPA with Italy’s A2A

UK-based energy giant BP has signed a long-term liquefied natural gas (LNG) supply deal with Italian electricity and gas distributor A2A.

More News Like This

Golden Pass LNG construction continues to advance

Energy giants QatarEnergy and ExxonMobil, along with their contractors, continue to advance construction on their massive Golden Pass LNG export facility in Texas.

Eni, YPF seal Argentina LNG deal

Italian energy firm Eni has signed a participation deal with Argentina’s state-owned oil and gas company YPF for the third phase of the latter's Argentina LNG export project.

QatarEnergy eyes major LNG trading expansion

State-owned LNG giant QatarEnergy aims to increase trading of non-Qatari physical LNG volumes to 30 to 40 million tons by 2030, according to Qatar’s energy minister and chief executive of QatarEneergy, Saad Sherida Al-Kaabi.

China’s Hudong-Zhonghua delivers its 50th LNG carrier

Chinese shipbuilder Hudong-Zhonghua has delivered its 50th liquefied natural gas (LNG) carrier.