Egypt's President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi on Saturday received CEO of Eni energy company Claudio Descalzi, in the presence of Minister of Petroleum and Mineral Resources Sherif Ismail.

During the meeting, Sisi hailed the size of Eni's business in Egypt, and the steady progress achieved in the field of oil and gas exploration, which contributes to strengthening excellent relations between Egypt and Italy at the official and popular levels, Presidential Spokesman Alaa Youssef said.

The President said that the Egyptian government will cooperate with all serious companies seeking to invest in the field of oil and gas exploration in Egypt.

He added that the government will provide investing companies with all requirements needed to achieve new discoveries, the spokesman added.

For his part, Descalzi said that the company has signed an agreement in June 2015 to increase its investments in Egypt that would contribute to promoting ties between Egypt and Italy.

The company expects positive and promising results of its current researches, he added.

ENI's CEO stressed the strong ties of friendship binding the two countries.

According to the company's official site, Egypt was Eni's first major international adventure. In autumn of 1954, Enrico Mattei established the first contacts with Egyptian leader Gamal Abdel Nasser with the aim of probing the possibility of initiating a direct mining partnership between the two countries.