Eni considers divestment from Cyprus projects, Nicosia uninformed

Italian energy giant Eni is considering on divesting from specific projects, including Cyprus, with Nicosia on Wednesday saying they have so far received no information on the matter.

According to a report in Bloomberg, who cited unnamed sources, Eni is planning to divest more than $4 billion in upstream assets, with Indonesia and Cyprus among the project potentially being targeted.

Invited to comment on the report by the Cyprus News Agency (CNA), Energy Minister George Papanastasiou said on Wednesday that Nicosia has no information on the matter.

“So far we haven’t received any information from that company,” he said.

However, the Italian giant had made known the tactic of divestment and reduction of capital expenditure (Capex).

In a market update on the results of the first quarter of 2024, Eni spoke of a “disciplined investment approach and targeted divestments, which will significantly reduce net capital investments,” compared to the company’s previous four-year plan.

In relation to its upstream operations, the company said, “we will leverage our well consolidated model of Dual Exploration, by reducing our equity and anticipating cashflow”.

It added that it has made “significant discoveries, for instance, in Ivory Coast, Cyprus, Indonesia and Congo which all hold the potential for the type of equity dilution we have successfully performed in the past”.

The Italian giant has a significant presence in the Cypriot EEZ with participation in a total of seven sea blocks.

The company had previously said that the estimated quantities of natural gas discovered amount to 2-3 trillion cubic feet (tcf) in the Zeus 1 target (block 6, 50 per cent participation with the French TOTAL with Eni as operator) and 2. 5 tcf in Kronos again in block 6, while in the same block there is the Calypso discovery.