Eni flirts with renewables. Signs deal with GE

Italian oil and gas giant Eni, recently mostly in the news for its gas discoveries in Egypt and Mozambique, has also been increasingly flirting with the renewable energy industry, aiming to reduce its carbon footprint.

Following a recently signed deal to work on a 20 to 50MW solar plant in Ghana, Eni has now signed an agreement with General Electric (GE) to develop renewable energy projects and hybrid solutions with a focus on energy efficiency.

Through this agreement, Eni and GE plan to jointly identify and develop large-scale power generation projects from renewable energy sources, the company said on Tuesday, announcing the deal.

According to Eni, the partners will work on a wide range of innovative technologies, including onshore and offshore wind generation, solar power, hybrid gas-renewable projects, electrification of new and existing assets, waste-to-energy projects, the ‘green’ conversion of mature or decommissioned industrial assets and the deployment of technologies developed by Eni’s R&D department.

“Through this partnership, Eni aims to enhance its ability to implement projects in the renewable energy sector, leveraging on the strong relationship developed over many years with GE in planning, constructing and operating Oil & Gas industrial plants worldwide and drawing on GE’s broad and diversified technological portfolio of products and solutions in both the conventional and the renewable energy sectors,” Eni said.

“This agreement, which is part of Eni’s strategy of developing renewable energy by leveraging on the industrial and commercial synergies of its traditional activities, will help Eni to pursue the progressive decarbonization of its energy mix,” the Italian energy company said.

Eni is also a part of the Oil and Gas Climate Initiative (OGCI), made up of CEOs of ten major oil and gas companies, which recently announced an investment of $1 billion over the next ten years, to develop and accelerate the commercial deployment of innovative low emissions technologies.

OGCI is currently made up of ten oil and gas companies – BP, Shell, CNPC, Eni, Pemex, Reliance Industries, Repsol, Saudi Aramco, Statoil, and Total – that together represent one fifth of the world’s oil and gas production.

OGCI Climate Investments’s aim is to deploy new technologies among member companies and beyond, and to identify ways to cut the energy intensity of both transport and industry.

Offshore Energy Today Staff