Republic of the Congo flag – ©railwayfx/AdobeStock
Italian oil and gas giant Eni said Tuesday it had signed a deal to sell to Perenco its participation interest in several non-core permits in the Republic of Congo.
“The transaction value is approximately $300 million, including firm and contingent consideration, subject to customary adjustments. Closing is subject to the authorization of relevant local and regulatory authorities,” said Eni, which has been present in the country for over 50 years.
Eni, which is working to develop an offshore LNG project which will exploit the huge gas resources of Marine XII license in the country, did not say which assets exactly were being sold to Perenco.
Info on the company’s website shows Eni’s upstream activities in the country are carried out in the conventional and deep offshore area opposite Pointe-Noire and in the onshore Koilou area.
As regards exploration, Eni operates in the offshore 1 Marine VI BIS block (Eni 65%). Production is supplied by 18 blocks, of which 12 operated (10 offshore and 2 onshore). The Nené-Banga field in the Marine XII block started up in 2022.
In September 2022, the country’s President Denis Sassou Nguesso and the Eni CEO Claudio Descalzi agreed to enhancing and commercializing the country’s gas resources with the aim of exporting about 1 billion cubic meters of gas in winter 2023-2024 and up to 4.5 billion per year starting from winter 2024-2025.
The increase in the production of gas in the country will also leverage a two-phase project involving the installation of two Floating Liquefied Natural Gas (FLNG) plants that will enable the country to start producing 0.6 million tonnes per year of LNG in 2023 and increase the total LNG production capacity from the Marine XII block to 3 million tonnes per year by 2025.
