KARACHI: On Monday, the Hub Power Holding Limited, a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Hub Power Company Limited (HUBCO) announced to acquire all the upstream operations of Ente Nazionale Idrocarburi (Eni), an Italian based oil and gas company in Pakistan.
In a notice on Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) website today, the Hub Power Holding Ltd said, “Hub Power Holdings Limited Company, a wholly owned subsidiary of The Hub Power Company Limited (HUBCO) together with Eni’s local employees (in a 50:50 joint venture) has executed definitive agreements to acquire all the upstream operations in Pakistan of Eni and renewable energy assets owned by Eni in Pakistan.
The notice further said, “the above transaction is subject to requisite compliance with applicable legal and regulatory processes and approval from competent authorities.”
Ali Poonawala, research head at AKD Securities said that this venture is a part of Eni’s wider global strategy, diversifying away from core oil and gas to renewables energy.
Another analyst claimed that Pakistan is a small market for Eni in the sense it has little business here and thus it makes sense to rethink operations.
In the past, Eni was in exploration and production business in Pakistan for onshore work and had a production sharing agreement for offshore.
The main permits of the company work are in Bhit/Badhra (40%) and Kadanwari (18.42%). The company also has shares in the permits Latif (33.3%), Zamzama (17.75%) and Sawan (23.7%). Development in 2019 included drilling new wells in producing fields to optimise production, improving existing onshore facilities and rigless operations to combat a decline in production.
Towards the end of 2019, Eni opened a solar plant with 10 MW to support production facilities in the field in Bhit.
Natural gas production in the country in 2018 equaled 3 million per day. After winning an international tender in 2017, ENi began supplying liquefied natural gas (LNG) in Pakistan.
It will provide the Pakistani national LNG company with a load every month for the next 15 years. This will amount to a total of more than 11 million tonnes of LNG in 180 load.
