Italy’s Eni is reviewing its projects in the Middle East because of the coronavirus pandemic and oil market conditions,  Reuters reported citing a senior company official.

Eni’s portfolio in the Middle East includes upstream and downstream projects in Bahrain, Lebanon, Oman and the United Arab Emirates.

“We are at the moment reviewing all our ongoing projects for this year, 2020, and 2021,” Fuad Krekshi, Eni’s regional executive vice president, said, according to a Reuters report.

“We expect to come out with the revised plan sometime in the next month.”

The review comes not just because of the coronavirus, but also because of the sharp and sudden drop in oil prices, that have lost about 50 per cent, he said.

Global oil prices have crashed in the last month following the collapse of a deal between OPEC and Russia to curb output and Saudi Arabia announcing plans to ramp up production to record levels.

Krekshi said there would be a joint review with ADNOC for the development of the Ghasha sour gas field in Abu Dhabi. Eni was awarded a 25 per cent stake in the concession, operated by ADNOC, in 2018. Germany’s Wintershall, a subsidiary of chemicals company BASF, has 10 per cent while Austria’s OMV has 5 per cent.

Krekshi said ENI would also postpone the start-up of new projects. (PIPELINE)