Last Monday, Eni Oil and Gas signed a memorandum of understanding with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) to improve sustainable energy access in Africa.

Eni Oil and Gas, which is already developing natural gas projects on the continent, expects to impact the energy transition thanks to the memorandum. In the framework of that memorandum, solar wind and hybrid off-grid networks will be installed.

In Nigeria, Ghana, Angola, Congo, Egypt, Gabon, Kenya, Mozambique, and Tanzania where the firm owns assets, it promised to develop projects to improve clean energy access.  

“Improving access to energy, especially in Africa, is core to our values, and it is now an intrinsic part of our business. We invest more than half of our budget in Africa, boosting the domestic potential and promoting local development”, Claudio Descalzi, Eni’s CEO said after the signature.

According to Achim Steiner, UNDP’s administrative, “UNDP and Eni’s combined expertise, ability to innovate, and on-the-ground networks, can enable better access to sustainable energy sources in Africa”.

In 2017, Eni supplied 56 billion m³ of gas to 14 African countries and invested about $2 billion in Sub-saharan Africa, for power plants and grids construction namely.

According to Natural Gas World, Eni’s gas discoveries helped Egypt produce low-carbon energy.

Olivier de Souza