Eni ready to cut Zohr stake further

Eni, fresh of its deal with BP for a 10% stake in the Shorouk concession, which contains the Zohr field, has signalled it could drop its shareholding to 50%.

In statements to the press on Tuesday, CEO Claudio Descalzi said the company had entered into discussions with several players for stakes in the Zohr field. “We believe we can operate the field with 50 percent, that’s my objective,” Reuters quoted Descalzi as saying. He added that an agreement with another party could happen in “a few months.”

Eni aims to follow a similar strategy in its Area 4 gasfield offshore Mozambique. Holding an indirect 50%, the company reportedly aims to cut this in half. The Italian major is said to have reached a deal with ExxonMobil on a stake in the field, but an official announcement has yet to be made. Investment banking entity Bank of America Merrill Lynch expects the sale, possibly 25%, to be made public by year-end 2016. It estimates the value of the transaction to be in the range of USD 2.5 billion.