Eni will now own a stake of just over 3% in the $28 bln North Field East project, Qatar's energy minister, Saad Sherida al-Kaabi, who is also Qatar Energy's CEO, said during a press conference in Doha.
He said:
- Today I'm pleased... to announce the selection of Eni as a partner in this unique strategic project
- We have a lot of things to learn from your leadership and also from your standards and from your ability to adapt to very difficult circumstances
It will help Qatar increase its LNG production by more than 60 % by 2027, France's TotalEnergies CEO Patrick Pouyanne told AFP last week.
Qatar announced TotalEnergies as its 1st foreign partner in the development last week, with a 6.25 % share.
Qatar Energy estimates that the North Field, which extends under the waters of the Gulf into Iranian territory, holds around 10 % of the world's known gas reserves.
While more companies are expected to be named as partners, Kaabi refused to divulge how many more partners would be announced.
However, AFP said industry sources have discussed ExxonMobil, Shell and ConocoPhillips, while Bloomberg reported that Chinese companies were in talks this week.
Eni said it would receive only 50 % of the gas requested from Gazprom, the 3rd day running of reduced supplies.
Rome has accused Gazprom of peddling «lies» over the cuts.
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said that reductions in supply were not premeditated and were related to maintenance issues, according to Reuters.
Due to Russia's invasion of Ukraine, western countries placed sanctions on Russian oil & gas to cut the Kremlin's primary revenue.
Despite the sanctions, Russia's revenue has bounced back to pre-miliaty conflict levels and gained around $20 bln from oil exports in May after Asian nations, including China and India, increased their imports of Russian fuel after discounts of more than 30 %.
