Italian firm, Eni, is considering more oil and gas operations in
Nigeria and other West Africa and the Middle East countries to help
reduce debt.
The move is also to fund its shift to low-carbon energy, according
to company and industry sources.
Africa’s biggest foreign oil and gas producer, Eni has prize assets
in Nigeria, Congo and Angola. It has big production centres in
Egypt and Libya, has rapidly built a presence in the Gulf and is
looking to grow in Asia, said reuters.
The move is part of a major overhaul the company launched last
year as it transitions into renewables and a gradual tapering of oil
and gas output.
Eni aims to replicate the success of its 2019 oil and gas spin-off in
Norway, where it formed joint venture Var Energi with private equity
firm HitecVision and retains a 69.6 per cent stake.
That created Norway’s second largest oil and gas producer after
acquiring Exxon Mobil’s portfolio there for $4.5 billion, giving it
production of about 150,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day.
The investment has been highly profitable, paying Eni nearly $1.3
billion euros in dividends since its creation.
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“The company is working on doing more of the same (as Var) with
chosen partners in West Africa and the Near-Far East and Far
East,” a source said without giving further detail.
Creating a separate entity will allow Eni to shift some of its debt,
which rose last year to 26.7 billion euros ($32.2 billion), off its
balance sheet given it will no longer be consolidated at group
level,” the sources said.
With lower debt, Eni hopes to raise new capital to build its
renewables and low-carbon business which will form the backbone
of the future company.
Eni has recently held talks with several large oil and gas producers
including BP and Total to merge parts of their operations in West
Africa and the Middle East, sources told Reuters.
Eni, BP and Total all declined to comment. BP and Total face
challenges similar to Eni’s in terms of managing debt and low-
carbon emissions but it remains unclear if the talks will be
successful, the sources said.
Europe’s top energy companies were forced to raise record
amounts of debt after oil and gas demand cratered in the wake of
the pandemic.
Eni chief financial officer, Francesco Gattei, in February told
analysts that there are opportunities in business combinations like
Var Energi to remove debt from Eni’s balance sheet.
“We aim to replicate our Norwegian Var model in different
countries, with potential business combinations which are currently
under screening,” Gattei said at the time.
https://leadership.ng/italian-firm-to-increase-oil-gas-stake-in-nigeria-others/
mynd44 oam4j lalasticlala

Good development God bless Nigeria

ManirBK:
Good development God bless Nigeria

.. IPOB will come for your Head

Frontail:
.. IPOB will come for your Head

That's why they are called flatheaders

Frontail:
.. IPOB will come for your Head

That's why they are called flatheaders

waillers will arrive

I hope Buharis poor policies will not make them change their mind