Rosneft has acquired 30% of Egypt's Zohr natural gas field from Eni for $1,12 billion. The closing comes 10 months after the announcement of the agreement, dated December 12, 2016: at the time it was specified that the agreement was subject to "the observance of some standard conditions, including all the necessary authorizations from the Egyptian authorities", according to as reported in a note from Eni.
Rosneft will invest $4,5 billion in the Zohr project, which is expected to start later this year. “This operation – underlined the Russian company – allows us to strengthen our position in strategic markets such as Europe and the Near East”.
In the meantime, however, Eni has to face a new stoppage in Basilicata, where the regional council has approved "the suspension of the reinjection of stratum waters into deep geological units through the Costa Molina 2 well in the countryside of Montemurro (Potenza)" used for the Eni's Val d'Agri (Cova) Oil Center in Viggiano (Potenza).
In a statement released by the press office of the Giunta chaired by Marcello Pittella (Pd) it is specified that "the decision became necessary following the report made by Arpab regarding the detection of the presence of dangerous substances in one of the storage tanks of the layer waters and at the Costa Molina 2 wellhead”.
Even if the suspension has not led to a stop in hydrocarbon production at the moment, it poses risks for future volumes. Eni obtains about 3% of its entire production from the Cova plant, so the impact for the stock is "marginally negative" according to Equita analysts.
At the end of the morning, Eni's shares in Piazza Affari dropped 0,3%, to 13,81 euros.
