ROME, Dec. 9 (UPI) -- Italian energy company Eni said Chief Executive Paolo Scaroni met Monday with the Republic of Congo's president to discuss the country's rising oil potential.
Eni said it has been working in the Republic of Congo since the late 1960s. Its current share of production from its various ventures is 110,000 barrels of oil per day.
The company said Scaroni met in Rome with Republic of Congo President Denis Sassou Nguesso to discuss Eni's "ongoing activities and projects ..., with particular focus on recent discoveries."
Based on those discoveries, Eni in August said there may be as much as 600 million barrels of oil and 700 billion cubic feet of natural gas off the Congolese coast.
Eni is the leading natural gas producer in the country. It reached a record 119 million cubic feet of natural gas production in 2011. The company accounts for 30 percent of the Congo's oil production.
The company said it was working alongside state-owned National Oil Co. of Congo to explore new parts of the so-called Cuvette basin, a reserve area about 200 miles northeast of Brazzaville.
The World Bank reports the energy sector accounts for most of the Congolese government's revenue.
