Eni to sell 30% stake in Egypt field to Rosneft

Italy’s Eni has agreed to sell a 30% stake in Egypt’s Shorouk concession to Rosneft for $1.13bn, taking its holding down to 60%.

Eni will receive $450m to cover previous development expenditures and Rosneft will have the option to buy a further 5% stake under the same terms.

The Zohr field in the Shorouk concession was discovered by Eni in August 2015 and is the largest natural gas field ever found in the Mediterranean, with a total potential of 850 billion cubic meters of gas in place.

“This agreement further confirms the success of Eni’s ‘dual exploration model’ which, in parallel with an accelerated development of the hydrocarbons reserves, aims at early monetisation of the value through the dilution of the high participating interest owned in huge exploration discoveries. With this transaction, in the last four years the model has generated a total cash of approximately $6.3bn.”

Last month, Eni sold a 10% stake in the field to BP.

At 1017 GMT, Eni shares were up 3.6% to €14.76.