What does Eni do (and will do) in Egypt
Eni's CEO, Claudio Descalzi, met in Egypt with the president al-Sisi. Here's what they discussed
Today Eni's CEO, Claudio Descalzi, met with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi and Oil Minister Tarek al-Molla. Eni's activities in Egypt were discussed, and in particular the production of natural gas and its export in liquefied form (LNG).
THE ENERGY AMBITION OF EGYPT
After the discovery, by Eni, of the large Zohr gas field, Egypt has taken on a new energy importance in the Mediterranean area, and today it aspires to become a regional gas hub.
Zohr is the largest deposit ever discovered in the Mediterranean Sea. In 2020 it reached a gross production capacity of 87 million cubic meters per day.
WHAT ENI DOES IN EGYPT
Eni – present in the country since 1954 – currently produces around 80 percent of the gas destined for the Egyptian market for electricity generation. Fuel exports are expected to increase, making Egypt a net exporter of LNG, following the reactivation of the Damietta liquefaction plant last year.
The Damietta liquefaction plant has a capacity of 7.5 billion cubic meters per year. It is owned by SEGAS, the joint venture between Eni (50 per cent) and the Egyptian companies EGAS (40 per cent) and EGPC (10 per cent).
HYDROGEN AND CO2 CAPTURE
In al-Sisi and el-Molla, Descalzi presented Eni's plans for the decarbonisation of its activities through the development of projects on the capture and storage of carbon dioxide and on the production of hydrogen. In this regard, at the Damietta plant the company is working on the development of low-carbon hydrogen , associated with CO2 capture technologies, and blue ammonia (ie obtained from natural gas but "retaining" emissions to prevent their release in the 'atmosphere).
The project may eventually be expanded beyond the plant and allow the decarbonisation of the entire industrial area of Damietta through the capture (in the initial stage) of 5 million tons of CO2.
A SOLAR PHOTOVOLTAIC PROJECT
The meeting then discussed a large Eni project on solar energy whose capacity is not known (in the press release issued by the company there is talk of "various GWs"), and also the five new hydrocarbon licenses that Eni has been awarded recently in the eastern Mediterranean, the Gulf of Suez and the western desert.
THE NUMBERS OF ENI IN EGYPT
In 2020, Eni produced 24 million barrels of oil and 12.5 billion cubic meters of natural gas in Egypt. It is the country's leading oil producer.
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/energia/eni-egitto-al-sisi/ on Thu, 31 Mar 2022 13:45:23 +0000.