Italy’s Eni starts work on solar power plants in Pakistan and Tunisia

• 5 years ago (2019-03-13)
• David Flin

Asia 892 Middle East 326 Solar 272

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Eni, the Italian oil and gas giant, has announced that it has started building new solar power plants in Tunisia and Pakistan.

The Tunisia plant will be built at the ADAM oil concession in the southern Tatouine Governorate, which is operated by Eni, and in which Eni has a 25 per cent stake through its subsidiary Eni Tunisia. The ADAM photovoltaic project has a peak capacity of 5 MW. The energy produced will be used on-site, reducing gas consumption and saving around 6500 tonnes/year of CO2 equivalent emissions. The plant is scheduled for completion by the end of 2019, and is part of the cooperation agreement with the state company Entreprise Tunisienne d’Activites Pétrolieres (ETAP), which is actively advancing renewable energy projects in Tunisia.

The Pakistan plant will be built close to the Bhit gas field in southern Sindh province, which Eni operates and holds a 40 per cent stake through its subsidiary Eni New Energy Pakistan. The Bhit plant is scheduled for completion by October 2019, will have a peak capacity of 10 MW, and is expected to generate around 20 GWh annually. The energy produced will be used on site, reducing gas consumption, and saving around 140,000 tonnes of CO2 equivalent emissions over the next ten years. Eni will integrate the new solar power plant with an existing power generation facility, allowing the shutdown of one of the gas turbines and reducing running costs once the solar plant is operational.

Eni said that the new plants in Tunisia and Pakistan will support its upstream operations.