Italy’s Eni has agreed to sell the Russian state-run company Rosneft up to a 35% stake in an oil concession in Egypt that contains the giant Zohr field, the biggest gas discovery in the Mediterranean Sea.
Rosneft will pay US$1.125 billion for a 30% stake and also pay a further $450 million reimbursement for past expenditures, Eni said on Monday.
Russia’s biggest oil producer has an option to increase the stake to 35% under the same terms, the National reports.
Rosneft joins BP, which agreed last month to buy a 10% stake in the concession for $375m. BP also has an option to raise its stake to 15% before the end of next year under the same terms.
Eni expects to pump the first gas from the offshore field, which was discovered in August last year, by the end of next year.
