Eni signed a strategic agreement with KazMunayGas (KMG), which will result in KMG and Eni each holding 50% of exploration and production rights in Isatay, an offshore exploration area in the north Caspian Sea.
The block is 45km north of the Bozashi peninsula, with water depths of 6-7 m, according to KMG, which said the exploration targets are Cretaceous, Jurassic, and Triassic terrigenous sediments. KMG first acquired the production sharing contract for Isatay from the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources on 13 June 2005.
Under yesterday's agreement, Isatay will be now operated by a joint operating company.
KMG's Chairman of the Management Board, Sauat Mynbayev, and Eni’s CEO, Claudio Descalzi, signed the agreement in Kazakhstan, in the presence of the President of the Republic of Kazakhstan, Nursultan Nazarbayev, and the Italian Prime Minister, Matteo Renzi.
The agreement also involves developing a shipyard project in Kuryk, on the Caspian Sea coast of the Mangystau region. The shipyard will be managed by a project company to be formed by Eni and KMG.
This new announcement follows a prior, non-binding, four-part memorandum of understanding that Eni and KMG signed in Rome in the presence of Silvio Berlusconi, then-Italian prime minister, and Kazakhstan's Nazarbayev. That MOU covered the Caspian shipyard construction and joint Eni-KazMunaiGas exploration of the Isatay and Shagala oil blocks, as well as constructing a gas sweetening plant and upgrading Kazakhstan's Soviet-era Pavlodar refinery.
Eni said the new agreement further strengthens its presence in the Republic of Kazakhstan, where it co-operates the Karachaganak field and is equity partner in several fields in the north Caspian Sea, including the giant Kashagan field.
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