Joint venture set up for Italy’s first carbon capture and storage project

Italy’s oil and gas giant Eni and energy infrastructure operator Snam have formed a joint venture to develop the first carbon capture and storage (CCS) project in Italy.

Eni CEO Claudio Descalzi and Snam CEO Stefano Venier signed an agreement on 19 December to jointly develop and manage Phase 1 of the Ravenna CCS Project through an equal joint venture.

Phase 1 covers the capture of 25,000 tons of CO2 emitted from Eni’s natural gas treatment plant in Casalborsetti. Once captured, the CO2 will be piped to the Porto Corsini Mare Ovest platform and injected into the homonymous depleted gas field offshore Ravenna.

“This joint venture sets the first initiative in Italy with the ambition to offer a solution to the entire hard-to-abate production cluster in the Po Valley, and potentially also to other Italian regions as well as other countries bordering the Mediterranean basin. Snam will contribute to the project with its know-how and distinctive skills in the transport and management of molecules, in this case CO2,” Venier said.

Venier stated that it is a fact that CCS technologies have consolidated their role at a global level as a tool available to achieve decarbonization goals, and for this reason are gaining more and more attention from governments, investors and industry players.

According to the parties, the project represents a fundamental step to respond to the decarbonization needs of steel mills, cement plants, ceramics and chemical industries and more generally of the “hard-to-abate” industry. Over 500 new jobs are expected to be available during Phase 1 of the project.

The agreement also includes the implementation of studies and preparatory activities for the subsequent development phases.

“Today it is necessary to join forces in order to reconcile decarbonization goals, energy security and competitiveness. This agreement represents an example of excellence, leveraging industrial synergies to contribute to the decarbonisation of Italy’s production system,” said Descalzi.

“Phase 1 of the Ravenna Project will allow to reduce emissions from the Casalborsetti power plant, launching in Italy a project based on a mature technological process that is key for the achievement of our climate goals. CCS is complementary to renewables, to energy efficiency solutions and to the other available levers, and is central to avoiding CO2 emissions from highly energy-intensive sectors that currently have no technological alternatives for decarbonisation”.

At the beginning of the year, Eni signed 19 Memoranda of Understanding (MoUs) for carbon, capture and storage within the HyNet North West project in the UK.

Following a license application for a CCS project in a depleted field in the North Sea in September, Eni announced the creation of a net-zero initiative to support the application. The initiative is targeting the decarbonization of the UK South East.