Shale Gas Will Transform US Economy: Eni Chairman
The boom in U.S. natural gas production is changing industry dynamics in Europe and Asia, chairman of Italy's Eni, Giuseppe Recchi, told CNBC's "Closing Bell" on Friday.
Comparing the transformation that U.S. gas production will have on the economy to the rise of the Internet, Recchi said, "This shale gas, fracking economy… is changing the dynamics of the gas business in Europe and Asia."
The Eni chairman said that an abundance of cheap gas will bring energy-intensive manufacturing back into the U.S. "A lot of global brands are bringing back this capacity to the U.S. which creates and jobs," he said.
Eni, which has 75 percent of its business overseas and is the biggest oil company in Africa, has also made a major gas find in Mozambique, which Recchi expects to further change the oil and gas industry.
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"We had a fantastic discovery rate this year," he said. "And the biggest claim we can make is this huge gas find in Mozambique. It's about 68 tcf, which is 25 years of consumption for a country like Italy."
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Turning to Italy's finances, he said, while there was "sweating and blood spilling" from the country's austerity measures, it ultimately will help improve growth.
"If our financial accounts are in order, the financial markets will trust the system, the (bond) spreads would go down and the debt resources would be freed up to boost the economy," he said. "The next step in the agenda is to create growth and that growth will be able to increase GDP and manage the (public sector) debt that just reached 2 trillion euros."