Italian oil and gas giant Eni has begun building new solar energy plants in Tunisia and Pakistan in as part of its commitment to switching from fossil fuels to renewables and to promoting global sustainable development, the company said in a statement on Tuesday.
The Tunisia plant will be built at the ADAM oil concession in the southern Tataouine governorate, which is operated by Eni and in which Eni has a 25% stake, through its subsidiary Eni Tunisia BV, said the statement.
The ADAM photovoltaic project has a peak capacity of 5MW. The energy produced will be used on-site, reducing gas consumption and saving around 6,500 tonnes/year of CO2 equivalent emissions, the statement added.
The solar plant is expected to be completed by the end of 2019 and is part of the cooperation agreement with the State Company Entreprise Tunisienne d’Activités Pétrolières (ETAP), which is active in the advancement of renewable energy projects in Tunisia.
"The project aims to establish a cutting edge hybrid electricity production system with battery storage devices, in order to enable efficient integration with the existing turbines," the statement said.
The Pakistan plant will be built close to the Bhit gas field in southern Sindh province, which Eni operates and holds a 40% stake in through its subsidiary Eni New Energy Pakistan, the statement continued.
The Bhit plant is due to be completed by October, will have a 10MW peak capacity and is expected to generate around 20GWh (Gigawatt hours) annually. The energy produced will be used on site, reducing gas consumption and saving some 140,000 tonnes of CO2 equivalent emissions in the next 10 years, the statement underlined.
Eni aims to integrate the new solar plant with an existing power generating facility, allowing the shutdown of one the existing gas turbines and cutting running costs once the solar plant is operational, the statement went on.
The new plants in Tunisia and Pakistan will support Eni's upstream operations by providing green energy with an offgrid set up, the statement said.
Eni operates in the upstream sector in Tunisia, mainly in the Southern Desert areas and in the Mediterranean offshore. It also has a presence in the gas, liquefied natural gas and marketing sectors though its management of the Transmed gas pipeline linking Algeria to Italy via Tunisia, and in refining and marketing. It has been present in Tunisia since 1961.
Eni has been present in Pakistan since 2000, where it also operates in the Upstream sector, where the main permits in the country are Bhit/Bhadra (Eni operator with a 40% interest), Kadanwari (Eni operator with 18,42% interest), Latif (Eni 33,3%), Sawan (Eni 23.68%) and Zamzama (Eni 17.75%) and Miano (Eni 15,16%).
Eni is currently operating in the Pakistani offshore and the Midstream sector, the statement concluded.
