27 July, 2015 – A few days after the important gas discovery made by Eni in the Nile Delta, the Minister of Petroleum and Mineral Resources of Egypt, Sherif Ismail, met with the CEO of the Italian company, Claudio Descalzi. The two, in the presence of Egyptian prime minister, Ibrahim Mahlab, and the Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi, signed a deal to incorporate the framework agreement signed between the parties in March. The new deal includes a commitment to jointly explore the development opportunities of the discovery, and renegotiates the contract terms and the extension of the concession. Preliminary estimates indicate that the field, located in the offshore Abu Madi West in the Nile Delta, will carry 15 billion cubic meters of gas, with further potential for the associated condensed gas. Eni is committed to developing very quickly this new potential to boost treatment capacity of the Abu Madi gas plant. The agreement also reaffirms and strengthens the commitments made with the framework agreement signed in March as part of the Egyptian Economic Development Conference in Sharm El Sheik, which calls for investments at about $5 billion over the next four years for projects aimed at the development of 200 million barrels of oil and about 37 billion cubic meters of gas, with a significant contribution to the growing local demand for energy. Eni has been present in Egypt since 1954, where it operates through its subsidiary Ieoc, and is the leading hydrocarbon producer in the countrym with an equity production of 180,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day.
