Eni Follows Ambitions To Join Oil And Gas Super League

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The following is an advisory by Industrialinfo.com (Industrial Information Resources, Incorporated; Houston, Texas). ENI, the Italian oil and gas company is going ahead with a major international expansion program as part of a drive to become one of the 'supermajor' oil and gas companies. Now ranked sixth in the world, ENI has an upward revised target of 1.6 million barrels per day in 2003, as it is confident that it will reach the previous 2003 target of 1.5 million barrels per day in 2002.

An investment of $5.5 billion is being made in Libya for the development of North African gas reserves. A pipeline will transport 8 million cubic meters of gas a year from 2004. In addition to existing investments in the Caspian Sea, the company has exploration projects in West Africa and a liquefied gas project in Nigeria. Worldwide investment includes projects in Iran, the North Sea, the Gulf of Mexico, and Venezuela. It has also been confirmed that ENI is engaged in talks with Saudi Basic Industries Corporation to sell part of Enichem.

Given restrictions on its gas sales in the domestic Italian market, the company is looking for new resources outside the country and will develop its activity in Portugal, Spain, and Germany and in the Blue Stream project. It will also use gas in Italy for electricity generation. It already generates 1,000 mega-watts (MW), which is mainly used to service internal company requirements. It is now looking for installed generation capacity to reach a maximum of 7,000MW, with no plans to become a large scale electricity generator.