The agreement was signed by the Chairman of EGAS Magdy Galal, and the COO of Natural Resources of Eni Guido Brusco in Cairo on Wednesday, Eni said in a press release.

This agreement, the statement said, together with the one signed for the restart of Damietta liquefaction plant last year – after an eight-year hiatus – will provide LNG cargoes for overall volumes of up to three BCM in 2022 for Eni LNG portfolio bound to Europe and Italy.

In recent years, Eni has taken part in important oil discoveries in the country, discovering in 2015 the giant Zohr gas field – the biggest-ever in the Mediterranean – which holds an estimated 30 trillion cubic feet of gas.

After achieving self-sufficiency in natural gas in 2018, Egypt has planned to use its position on Europe’s doorstep to become a major supplier of LNG to the continent, which is transitioning away from other fossil fuels.

Egypt has the infrastructure for the transport and handling of natural gas, with a main network of 7,000 km of pipelines, as well as a distribution network of 31,000 km, and 29 gas-treatment plants in addition to the two LNG facilities, Idku and Damietta plants.

Egypt's natural gas exports are expected to rise to 7.5 million tonnes by the end of 2021/2022 fiscal year, according to Minister of Petroleum and Mineral Resources Tarek El-Molla.

New discoveries

Eni announced new oil and gas discoveries for approximately 8,500 barrels/day of oil in the Meleiha concessions in Egypt’s Western Desert, they said a separate press release, that have already been connected and tied into production.

These results, along with the discovery of an additional eight wells last year, confirms the potential of efforts in the area with a 75 percent success rate, the Eni press conference said,  referring to the figure as a promising indication of more discoveries in the area.

In a meeting with with a delegation from the Italian company led by CEO Claudio Descalzi in March, President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi encouraged Italy's Eni on Thursday to continue its exploration works, promising to iron out any hurdles facing the company in Egypt.

This came few months after the Egyptian General Petroleum Corporation signed an agreement with the Italian company for oil exploration and exploitation in the Gulf of Suez and Nile Delta regions worth $1 billion in December.

Eni, which has been present in Egypt since 1954, is currently the leading oil and gas producer in Egypt as it produces the equivalent of 360,000 barrels of oil per day, according to the statement.