Italian oil and gas group Eni agreed to sell a 30 percent stake in Egypt’s offshore Shorouk concession to Russia’s Rosneft for $1.125 billion, cutting its stake in the Zohr giant gas field to 60 percent.

Eni said Rosneft would reimburse pro-rata investments already carried out by the Italian group totalling around $450 million at present.

Rosneft has also an option to buy a further 5 percent stake at the same conditions. Eni discovered the Zohr field – the Mediterranean’s biggest ever gas field – in the Shorouk concession in August 2015.