Vitol to Buy Stakes in Eni’s Upstream Projects in West Africa

Vitol to Buy Stakes in Eni’s Upstream Projects in West Africa | OilPrice.com

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Breaking News:

ByTsvetana Paraskova– Mar 19, 2025, 8:30 AM CDT

The world’s largest independent oil trader, Vitol, will buy stakes in some upstream assets in West Africa from Eni for $1.65 billion, subject to closing cash adjustments, the Italian energy major said on Wednesday.

Eni has been pursuing in recent years the so-called ‘dual exploration model’, under which it sells part of its majority stakes to other companies to fast-track oil and gas discoveries to production.

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Vitol, for its part, has been looking to get into more upstream and downstream assets after the world’s biggest trading houses generated exceptional profits during the spikes in energy commodity prices in the extremely volatile 2022-2023 period in oil and gas markets.

Per the agreement Eni announced today, Vitol will buy an interest in both oil and gas producing assets and blocks undergoing exploration, appraisal, and development. These include the Baleine project in Cote d’Ivoire, where Eni has a 77.25% ownership interest—Vitol will acquire a 30% participating interest, and Congo LNG project in the Republic of Congo, where Eni holds a 65% stake and Vitol will buy 25%.

Eni and Vitol are already partners in the OCTP and Block 4 projects in Ghana, and this agreement further consolidates cooperation between the two companies in West Africa, the Italian firm said.

Vitol has been present in West Africa’s upstream for many years and has a portfolio of infrastructure and downstream-related investments in the region.

Eni is already producing oil and gas from Baleine offshore Cote d’Ivoire and has just ramped up output with the start-up of Phase 2.

In Congo, Eni launched the Congo LNG project in February 2024, which made the Republic of Congo an LNG exporting country.

As part of its plan to cluster its upstream activities in a “distinctive growth-oriented strategy”, Eni last month agreed with Malaysian state oil and gas firm Petronas to discuss a joint venture that would combine and oversee some of their upstream assets in Malaysia and Indonesia.

By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com

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