Eni CEO Claudo Descalzi met with Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Energy and Water Minister Yuval Steinitz in Jerusalem today (29 October) to discuss potential joint development of natural gas in the Eastern Mediterranean as well as sharing export and transportation infrastructure in Israel, Cyprus and Egypt.
“As part of the growing strategic cooperation between Israel and Italy in a variety of fields, I see great importance to cooperation with Italy also in the field of energy,” Netanyahu said of the meeting.
Continuing, Netanyahu’s office further said: “Prime Minister Netanyahu and Mr. Descalzi agreed that in light of the growing demand for natural gas in the region, and in order to continue to promote the common interests of the countries and major energy companies in the region, further possibilities for cooperation need to be explored, including joint development or transfer of natural gas to different consumers.”
The move comes as Israel ramps up its campaign to attract more foreign investment in the country. Steinitz came to Houston last week for a summit at the Baker Institute at Rice University where he spoke about Israel’s new regulatory framework for the energy industry, which he hopes will be signed by year’s end. After some notable dust ups with Houston-based Noble Energy, regarding its development plans for the mega natural gas discovery, Leviathan, Steinitz saw the need to not only correct the relationship with Noble and its local partners, but to also sweeten the deal for other foreign investors in order to maintain the country’s energy security and secure energy revenues for the state.
“We want to attract other companies, and welcome companies to continue to explore our waters,” Steinitz said at the event on 20 October. “There is still a lot of gas waiting to be explored in our waters, another 100 Tcf. In addition, the chances of discovering oil fields is high probable. We hope to move forward.”
On his part, Descalzi has been active in the region, meeting not only with Israeli officials, but Egyptian President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi and Cyrus’ President Nicos Anastasiades in order to unify the region, where Eni has made some sizeable discoveries.
At the end of August, Eni hit a jackpot offshore Egypt with its Zohr deepwater natural gas discovery, which it has called the largest gas field in the Mediterranean, and possible the world. Eni says the field could hold up to 30 Tcf of lean gas in place over some 100sq km. Earlier this month, Descalzi met with President Al-Sisi to present the company’s development plan for Zohr, which Eni would like to fast-track. And it makes sense for Eni to get involved with the region’s geopolitics. The Zohr discovery well, is close to Cypriot waters. In addition, a new analysis by IHS says that Zohr has the potential to supply much of Egypt’s increasing domestic gas demand and will likely have an impact on regional gas commercialization plans.
“By sharing future resources as well as export and transportation infrastructures of Israel, Cyprus and Egypt, the area could become a regional gas hub able to also provide an important contribution to the European energy security,” Eni said following the meeting with Israeli officials.
Image: Netanyahu and Descalzi. Photo by Kobi Gideon, GPO.
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