Eni SpA, an Italian energy company, announced in a press release on Sunday that it has discovered a “supergiant” natural gas field. The discovery was made about 120 miles miles off the coast of Egypt, in the company’s Zohr prospect, at a depth of nearly 5,000 feet.
This discovery, which the company dubs “historic,” could potentially hold 30 trillion cubic feet of gas within a 100 square kilometer area, making it one of the world’s largest natural gas finds. The company wrote in its statement that after the field is fully developed, it “will be able to ensure satisfying Egypt’s natural gas demand for decades.”
This discovery could yield about 5.5 billion barrels of oil, a massive fortune considering Eni has discovered a total of 10 billion barrels of resources in the past 7 years.
Eni’s CEO Claudio Descalzi recently travelled to Egypt to update President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi on Eni’s discovery and to discuss it with Prime Minister Ibrahim Mahlab and Minister of Petroleum and Mineral Resources Sherif Ismail. Descalzi stated that finding this gas field in Egypt is strategic for the company, adding value to the discovery because “important synergies with the existing infrastructures can be exploited allowing [Eni] a fast production startup.”
