The Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El Sisi received Eni’s CEO, Claudio Descalzi, and Bob Dudley, BP’s CEO, to discuss progress of the Zohr field, Sada El Balad informed.

Egypt’s Prime Minister, Eng. Sherif Ismail, the Minister of Petroleum and Mineral Resources, Eng. Tarek El Molla, as well as a number of senior officials of the two companies attended the meeting. The meeting followed the one held in January, during which Eni’s CEO confirmed that the development of Zohr is progressing very quickly, having been fast tracked, and that the start of production is confirmed for 2017, just two years after the discovery was made, World Oil reported.

Descalzi, Dudley, and El Molla signed a deal completing the sale of a 10% stake in the Shorouk concession, offshore Egypt, to BP.  Eni and BP first agreed on the sale of the concession stake, where the super-giant Zohr gas field is located, in November 2016. Eni, through its subsidiary IEOC, now holds a 90% stake in the license, while Rosneft has agreed to acquire a 30% stake, which is still pending subject to the Egyptian governmental approval.