Eni, Snam form JV for CCS in Italy

Eni and Snam have signed an agreement to jointly develop and manage the first phase of the Ravenna carbon capture and storage (CCS) project in Italy, through an equal joint venture, they said on December 19.

Phase one of the Ravenna CCS project covers the capture of 25,000 metric tons/year 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 in Ravenna’s offshore, the companies said.

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

Snam CEO Stefano Venier said that CCS technologies have consolidated their role at a global level as a tool available to achieve decarbonisation goals, and for this reason they are gaining more and more attention from governments, investors and industry players.

“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,” Venier said.