Egypt's president met with Eni CEO on Monday to discuss moves aimed at supporting gas production, the Italian energy group said after the African country was forced to turn to the liquefied natural gas (LNG) market to cover domestic demand.
The country had planned to become a major gas exporter after Eni discovered the giant Zohr offshore field in 2015, but domestic gas production in Egypt has been falling since 2021 to reach a six-year low this year.
Average production at Zohr was 1.9 billion cubic feet per day (bcf/d) in the first half of this year, well below the peak reached in 2019, fuelling speculation about technical issues and a halt of investment at the giant field.
At a post-result conference call on Friday, Eni's Chief Operating Officer for Global Resources Guido Brusco said the Italian group would start activities to restore some gas output at Zohr at the beginning of next year.
On Monday President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi and Eni CEO Claudio Descalzi also talked about Egypt's role in developing a gas hub in the eastern Mediterranean and the group's commitment to accelerate decarbonisation through methane emissions reduction and other energy efficiency solutions, a statement said.
Three trading sources told Reuters earlier this month that Egypt planned to issue a tender seeking up to 20 cargoes of liquefied natural gas (LNG) to meet requests for the first quarter of 2025.
(Reuters - Reporting by Francesca Landini, editing by Alvise Armellini and Tomasz Janowski)