Eni Confirms 20% Sale of Mozambique Area 4 for $4.2B

Italian major Eni confirmed Thursday that it has sold a 20-percent share of its Area 4 license block in Mozambique to China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC), as rumored in a news report last Friday. The company also announced that it has reached an agreement with CNPC for cooperation on the development of the Rongchang shale gas block in the Sichuan Basin, onshore China.

Eni said that Petrochina CEO Zhou Jiping and Eni CEO Paulo Scaroni met in Beijing to sign the Area 4 deal. (Petrochina is controlled by CNPC.)

The agreed price for CNPC's stake in Area 4 was $4.2 billion. Eni will retain a 50-percent interest in the license.

Eni pointed out that CNPC's entrance into the license is "strategically important for the project thanks to the worldwide relevance of the new partner in the upstream and downstream sectors".

ENI and CNPC also signed a joint study agreement to work together on the development of the Rongchang shale gas block, which covers around 760 square miles in the Sichuan Basin. The area, which is closely located to the important consumer markets in China, has already been de-risked by research activities and production tests carried out in nearby blocks, said Eni.

A former engineer, Jon is an award-winning editor who has covered the technology, engineering and energy sectors since the mid-1990s. Email Jon at jmainwaring@rigzone.com.

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