Reuters: Eni's Winning Gas Streak Leaves Competition Chafing

Eni's giant Zohr gas find in Egypt this month, a gamble taken under the noses of competitors, marked the Italian major's rapid rise to preeminence in the hunt for big new fields.

Its risk-taking new leadership went ahead with what rivals described as an opportunistic drilling plan, leaving peers BP , BG, Royal Dutch Shell and Total regretting they missed a golden opportunity.

Zohr is Eni's fifth major oil and gas discovery in just 3 years giving it the best track record in reserve replacement as well as one of the lowest cost bases.

The 30 trillion cubic feet gas field, the biggest ever discovery in the Mediterranean, pleased investors, vindicating CEO Claudio Descalzi's new strategy of revisiting mature basins where infrastructure and know-how are already in place and where new in-house technologies and geological skills can be used to discover more. MORE