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ISLAMABAD: Italian multinational oil and gas company Eni has announced the sale of its Pakistan assets to Prime International Oil and Gas Company, a newly established joint venture (JV) between its local employees and Hub Power Company, the largest Independent Pakistani Power Producer.
In a statement, the company said the agreement aligns to its wider strategy of reshaping and simplifying the company’s portfolio, extracting additional value from its strategic assets and disposing non-core businesses as per its four-year strategic plan.
The activities covered by the agreement include interests in eight development and production leases in the Kithar Fold Belt, and the Middle Indus Basins and four exploration licenses in the Middle Insud and the Indus Offshore Basins.
Eni’s main permits were in Bhit/Badhra (40% of working interest) and Kadanwari (18.42% of working interest). Other shares were in the permits for Latif (33.3%), Zamzama (17.75%) and Sawan (23.7%).
“This agreement aligns to Eni’s wider strategy of reshaping and simplifying the company’s portfolio, extracting additional value from its strategic assets and disposing non-core businesses as per its Strategic Plan 2021-2014,” the company said.
The company did not disclose the value of the deal. Pakistan has seen an exodus of international players in recent years, with companies such as Australia’s BHP and OMV of Austria divesting all or part of their upstream assets.
In December 2020, Italian energy group Eni said it is looking to sell assets in Pakistan as part of moves to refocus its oil and gas portfolio following a strategic re-shake this year.
Eni said it was reviewing its exploration and production portfolio and leaving or downsizing operations in countries where it has a small presence with few opportunities to grow or where development is too long and complicated. It is working to sell assets in Australia where it aims to keep control of its solar business as it looks to meet aggressive renewable energy targets.
Earlier, Eni unveiled one of the most ambitious clean-up drives in the oil industry when it pledged to slash its greenhouse gas emissions by 80%. The move by Eni, which supplied 3 million cubic metres of natural gas a day to Pakistan in 2018, underlines the chronic problems facing the country, where a deep energy crisis has hampered economic development for years.
