Italian oil and gas firm, Eni, has taken operatorship of the Evans Shoal gas field situated off the coast of Northern Australia.
Acquiring 32.5% from Shell Australia Proprietary Limited (Shell), the deal makes Eni the operator for the retention lease NT/RL7.
The Evans Shoal gas field is located in the Bonaparte Basin in Northern Australia, 300km northwest of Darwin, where the Darwin LNG plant is based.
Eni estimates the resource base of the field to at least 8 Tcf of raw gas in place.
The deal has been approved by the Joint Venture and the Australian Government has granted all the required approvals. The new NT/RL7 Joint Venture sees Eni Australia Ltd 65% (Operator), PETRONAS Carigali (Australia) Pty Ltd 25%, and Osaka Gas Australia Pty Ltd 10%.