The letter of intent was signed by Congo’s Minister of Hydrocarbons, H.E. Bruno Jean-Richard Itoua, and Luigi Di Maio, Italy’s Foreign Minister, in the presence of Eni CEO Claudio Descalzi. It allows Eni to expand its gas production in Congo-Brazzaville for sale to Italy.

The agreement will help to improve cooperation in the areas of energy and trade between the two countries. As a result, the Italian government will work with the Republic of Congo through Eni to promote renewable energy, develop an agricultural supply chain for feedstock, increase clean cooking adoption, environmental sustainability and conservation, and deploy carbon capture, storage, and utilisation solutions.

Eni will speed up the building of a liquefied natural gas (LNG) project that will allow the company to export over 3 million tonnes of LNG per year once it is fully operational in 2023, with production expected to exceed local demand.

Following the signing of the agreement, the President of the Republic of the Congo, H.E. Dénis Sassou N’Guesso, travelled to Italy to continue negotiations about energy cooperation between the two nations in the areas of decarbonization, sustainability, and the energy transition.

The move is part of the Italian government’s efforts to reduce its dependency on Russian gas due to the continuing Russian-Ukraine crisis and comes on the heels of similar agreements with Angola, Egypt, and Algeria, as well as talks with Mozambique in southern Africa.