Chief Executive Paolo Scaroni said Tuesday he expects the Eni SpA (E)-led consortium to sign the final agreement with the Kazakh government over the Kashagan oil project on Friday, putting an end to a spat that started almost 18 months ago.
Eni expects to sign the final agreement over Kashagan Friday, together with the other companies taking part in the project, Scaroni told reporters on the sidelines of a conference in London.
Eni had said this summer it expected the agreement to be finalized in October with a definite accord. Kashagan is one of the biggest oil discoveries in the last decades.
Kazakhstan and the consortium, which includes oil majors such as ExxonMobil Corp. (XOM), Royal Dutch Shell PLC (RDSB) and Total SA (TOT), have been in a dispute since summer 2007 over repeated delays in production and cost overruns.
Other consortium members include Kazakh state-controlled oil company KazMunaiGas, ConocoPhillips (COP) and Japan's Inpex Holdings Inc. (1605.TO).