Italy’s Eni plans $26bn energy push in North Africa

Italian energy group Eni will invest around €24 billion ($26.24 billion) in Algeria, Libya and Egypt over the next four years to help boost energy production, CEO Claudio Descalzi said on Tuesday.

The investments would coincide with the Rome government’s efforts to relaunch its economic and political ties with Africa as part of its so-called Mattei Plan.

Eni is already a major foreign investor in North Africa’s energy sector.

Descalzi said the three countries can play an important role as hydrocarbon suppliers for Europe, but need outside investment to expand their energy production and meet rising domestic demand.

“Internal demand in these countries – because of demographic growth – is increasing at about 7-8 percent every year, this means they need gas… they need investment,” he told an energy conference in the Italian city of Ravenna.

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In the next four years, Eni will invest more than €8 billion each in Algeria and Libya, and about the same in Egypt, Descalzi said.

Egypt had planned to become a major gas exporter after Eni discovered the Zohr offshore gas field there in 2015. However, domestic gas production in the country has been falling since 2021, and reached a six-year low in 2024.

Earlier this year, Cyprus and Egypt signed a deal to process the gas coming from Cyprus’s offshore fields to Egypt, exported by Eni, for liquefaction and re-export to Europe.