Eni and Snam have signed a deal to develop Italy's first carbon capture and storage project at Ravenna on the country's Adriatic coast.
Eni chief executive Claudio Descalzi and his Snam counterpart Stefano Venier signed an agreement to jointly develop and manage phase one of the Ravenna CCS project through an equal joint venture.
The agreement also includes the implementation of studies and preparatory activities for subsequent development phases.
Phase one covers the capture of 25,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide emitted from Eni’s gas treatment plant in Casalborsetti, Ravenna.
Once captured, the CO2 will be piped to the Porto Corsini Mare Ovest platform and injected into a depleted gas field.
Commenting on the deal, Descalzi said: “Today, it is necessary to join forces in order to reconcile decarbonisation goals, energy security and competitiveness.”
He said the technology to be deployed in this CCS project “is key for the achievement of our climate goals”.
Descalzi argued that 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”.
Snam’s Venier added that CCS technologies “are gaining more and more attention from governments, investors and industry players”.
He said the Ravenna scheme aims to offer a solution to the entire hard-to-abate production cluster in Italy's Po Valley and, potentially, other Italian regions plus other countries bordering the Mediterranean basin.
The proponents estimate the project will create over 500 new jobs during phase one.
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