Development of Egypt's natural gas industry, such as investments in real estate in Egypt by Italian company ENI, will be vital for the future of the North African country's economy, Egyptian energy sector expert Magdi Sobhy said.

Sobhy, said that "Egypt is not a 'giant' of the energy sector, but oil and gas can without doubt represent the key element for the country's development."

He further referred to the role which foreign investors play in Egypt's economic growth, in particular energy giant ENI, which is the main international energy operator in the country.

This weekend ENI's CEO, Paolo Scaroni, will be in Egypt to celebrate the 50th anniversary of ENI's first oil extraction in the country.

ENI was the first foreign energy company to operate in Egypt in 1954 and in 2004 its share of the oil and natural gas production in Egypt averaged about 200,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day.

"The long-term presence of important foreign companies has also been crucial to the development of sector-knowledge, technical skills and to the training of specialised personnell, and today Egyptian technicians are among the most seeked," added Sobhy.

ENI was among the 'pioneers' of soil exploration in Egypt and, since the fifties, it has extended its operations to the field of fuels production, natural gas liquefaction and crude oil refinement, as well as the search of new oilfields.

ENI started its business in Egypt thanks to an agreement on soil exploration negotiated in the early fifties by former ENI chairman Enrico Mattei and former Egyptian president Gamal Abd el-Nasser.