CAIRO, Aug. 1 (Xinhua) -- Italy's oil major firm Eni announced on Tuesday that it intends to pump investments of 3.5 billion U.S. dollars in Egypt in 2018, official MENA news agency reported.
The announcement was made by Eni's CEO Claudio Descalzi during a meeting with Egyptian Prime Minister Sherif Ismail, noting that the 3.5 billion dollars to be invested in Egypt represent half of Eni's investments planned for 2018.
Eni announced in August 2015 the discovery of the largest gas field, named Zohr, in the Mediterranean Sea in the Egyptian offshore, saying it could hold a potential of 30 trillion cubic feet (850 billion cubic meters) of lean gas in a place covering an area of about 100 square km.
Descalzi updated the Egyptian prime minister with the Eni's development progress of Zohr gas field, referring to Egypt as a key strategic partner of the Italian giant company.
The Eni chief expects Zohr to produce more than 500 million cubic feet of gas per day by the end of 2017.
Eni has been operating in Egypt for over 60 years.
