^{The Council of Ministers of Côte d'Ivoire approved on Thursday, August 1, 2024, the signing of production sharing contracts with Eni on four oil blocks.}

The Council of Ministers said in a statement that the agreement provides for a minimum investment of 80 million USD in blocks CI-504, CI-526, CI-706 and CI-708 for an initial period of three years. Nigeria hopes to become a major regional oil and gas producer as well as an energy hub. He expects oil production to more than triple by 2027, thanks to recent oil and gas discoveries. Eni, for its part, started producing oil last year on the Whale field in Côte d'Ivoire, whose reserves are estimated at 2.5 billion barrels of oil and 3.3 trillion cubic feet of natural

noted that the presence of the Eni company in the African country dates back to the 1960s with its subsidiary Agip Côte d'Ivoire.