Supreme Council Member and Ruler of Sharjah His Highness Dr Sheikh Sultan Bin Mohammed Al Qasimi received on Sunday morning in Al Badi’a Palace, the CEO of National Fuel Agency (ENI) Claudio Descalzi.

Also present were Sheikh Sultan Bin Ahmed Al Qasimi, President of Sharjah National Oil Corporation (SNOC), Hatem Al Mousa, CEO of SNOC, and a number of representatives from SNOC and ENI.

Sheikh Sultan welcomed the guest and the accompanying delegation, expressing optimism about the existing partnership between the SNOC and the ENI, and wishing the two parties success in their upcoming research and exploration.

During the meeting, the activities of ENI in the field of petroleum in the UAE were introduced, highlighting ENI’s prominent achievements, and obtaining the exploration concessions in land areas (A), (B) and (C) from the Sharjah, in partnership with SNOC.

The Ruler of Sharjah was also briefed by the CEO of ENI on a set of future opportunities related to development in the field of energy and projects for renewable energy sources, as ENI shows an increasing interest in these strategic areas in the Middle East region.

The meeting also dealt with a number of points focused on ways to benefit from the activities of ENI in the emirate within the framework of its smart partnership with SNOC in the wild areas (A), (B) and (C), and the future vision that the company is working on and the existing opportunities.

ENI is working according to its specific programme with SNOC to carry out a number of exploration works in areas (A) and (C) of the emirate, in order to contribute to discovering additional resources for the benefit of Sharjah’s development.

On the fourth of this month, ENI and SNOC have announced the production start-up from the Mahani field, located in onshore Concession Area B of Sharjah.

This has been achieved in less than a year since the announcement of the discovery of gas in the Mahani field and less than two years after the signing of the contract for ENI to enter into the partnership with SNOC to discover in the wild areas of Sharjah.

SNOC and ENI are also involved in exploring future cooperation opportunities in the energy fields, including renewable energy sources, in line with Eni’s commitment to energy transformation, especially in the field of carbon neutrality.

Lauding the constant effort and the unlimited support of Sheikh Sultan to promote the great progress and the smart partnership between the two companies, SNOC and ENI, the CEO of ENI has extended his sincere thanks and appreciation to the Ruler of Sharjah, contributing in enhancing the achievement of the desired goals.

Recently, within the framework of its unwavering progress in the global scientific fields, the Sharjah Astronomical Observatory (SAO) of the Sharjah Academy for Astronomy, Space Sciences, and Technology (SAASST) at the University of Sharjah recorded a new global achievement.

The Minor Planet Centre (MPC) of the International Astronomical Union (IAU) added the Observatory to its list of credible and reliable international observatories list with the code “Sharjah Observatory M47.” Sheikh Sultan established SAASST as a scientific edifice to enrich awareness and public knowledge of the developments, importance, and impact of astronomy, space sciences, and technology.

It was also done in the hope that Sharjah would become a world leader in scientific research and solidify the UAE’s position as a scientific centre at the regional and global levels.

Announcing this, the MPC said the Sharjah Astronomical Observatory will monitor, track and discover asteroids and send scientific reports on the movement of these asteroids through continuous observation and analysis.

Commenting on the news, Professor Hamid MK Al Naimiy, Chancellor of the University of Sharjah, General Director of SAASST, and President of the Arab Union for Astronomy and Space Sciences, said that this global achievement will enable the Sharjah Astronomical Observatory to send official asteroid observation reports after analysing them with special software and high accuracy.

WAM