Italy's Eni plans to deepen its involvement in Nigeria's energy industry, increasing oil and gas exploration and helping to restore one of the country's ailing refineries, the company said in a statement on Jan. 23.

Eni's CEO, Claudio Descalzi, and Emmanuele Ibe Kachikwu, Nigeria's Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, met in Rome during the week of Jan. 23 to sign several memorandums of understanding to "further strengthen" Eni's involvement in Nigeria.

Eni said it will "intensify" oil and gas exploration onshore and offshore, including at deepwater sites. The plan stands in contrast to majors such as Royal Dutch Shell Plc (NYSE: RDS.A), which seek to divest onshore holdings that are subject to widespread theft, sabotage and attacks by militant groups.

Eni's own Brass River crude oil grade has been under force majeure since a pipeline blast in May 2016. Eni currently has equity in 125,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day.

The company's promise to work with Nigeria's petroleum ministry to rehabilitate and "enhance" the Port Harcourt oil refinery also represents a long-sought partnership for Nigeria's government, which has been trying to reduce costly imported oil products.

The imports are consuming a large portion of the nation's scarce foreign currency, but the run-down state of the refineries themselves, which are also subject to frequent attacks on pipelines, has hampered progress.

Kachikwu previously said that Chevron Corp. (NYSE: CVX) was interested in working on the Warri refinery and that Total was interested in Kaduna.

Eni also said it plans to continue long-standing plans to double power generation capacity at the 480 megawatt Okpai Independent Power Plant in Delta state, which was built by Eni's local subsidiary, Nigerian Agip Oil Co.