Akufo-Addo Hosts Eni CEO Claudio Descalzi

President Nana Akufo-Addo, met the CEO of Eni, Claudio Descalzi on Wednesday, October 3, 2018, in Accra.

The meeting was aimed at discussing Eni's operational activities as well as partnership opportunities between Ghana and Eni. Present at the meeting was the Energy Minister John Peter Amewu,

In the framework of the partnership signed between Eni and UNDP, a first area that will be developed together is a REDD+ (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation) initiative.

Community based activities will be proposed in order to increase agricultural productivity, introduce agroforestry schemes, and generate revenue from non-timber forest products contributing to the diversification and development of the local economy.

Eni recently signed with UNDP to combine efforts on the development of renewable energy, energy efficiency, forestry and clean cooking initiatives starting in Africa.

This partnership aims at achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) specifically SDG 7, on affordable and clean energy, SDG 13 on climate actions, and SDG 15 on land management and afforestation.

Eni invests more than half of its budget in Africa, boosting the domestic potential and promoting local development.

Eni CEO, Claudio Descali, says “the company is committed to the sustainable development of Ghana”.

According to Eni, the $7bn investment in the integrated OCTP project represents the company’s firm commitment to providing long term domestic gas supply.

Ghana's OCTP project will deliver stable, secure, reliable, and affordable volumes of gas to feed Ghana's power plants for over 20 years.

The use of domestic gas also aims at allowing Ghana to cut the use of liquid fuel, reducing CO2 emissions by 30%, and to limit expensive gas importation, whose entire value chain lies outside the country.

Also, Eni has put in place over $15m to an extensive program of sustainability initiatives such as economic diversification education, water and sanitation and health activities.

The company is also engaged in the development of solar power projects in the country including off grid installations in remote areas and floating solar farms.

Eni has been present in Ghana since 2009 through its subsidiary Eni Ghana.

Eni is Operator of the OCTP Integrated Oil&Gas Development Project (Eni 44.44%, Vitol 35.56%, GNPC 20%).