Roma, 10 December 2019 – The Minister of the Environment and the Protection of Land and Sea, Sergio Costa, and Eni’s CEO, Claudio Descalzi, have signed a preliminary agreement committing Eni to carrying out a programme of decarbonization, environmental mitigation, and redevelopment and enhancement at the site in Gela, which is no longer used to produce and process mineral oils.
The programme will involve dismantling all disused areas across the industrial site over the next 10 years, and giving them new functions. During the first phase of this process, which will take place over the next three years, disused production plants will be demolished over a total area of more than 20 hectares. A decarbonization project will be carried out at the site, applying Eni's innovative technologies to capture and reuse carbon dioxide and convert it into cement material and bio-oil. This will reduce direct greenhouse gas emissions and promote environmental, economic, and social sustainable development. Debris and structures on the seabed, stretching 500m along each side of the pier, will be removed. Another project will deploy the most effective methods, such as planting trees, to restore the channel and collect and use water for cooling. Eni has committed to a series of projects to plant trees, which will reduce the amount of CO2 produced in biofuel production. All these initiatives will be accompanied by a further project to develop the gas fields Argo and Cassiopea, which will be the first gas fields capable of reaching carbon neutrality thanks to energy produced at photovoltaic plants. The project will have no visual impact as it will use existing reclaimed industrial land within the boundaries of the refinery, and won’t release water or waste into the sea.
Eni’s CEO, Claudio Descalzi, stated: “This is a cutting-edge programme to facilitate the sustainable industrial development of a site, according to circular economy principles and using the most advanced technologies. This agreement follows and complements the conversion of the Gela refinery into a bio-refinery, where Eni transformed the industrial site using a circular economy model to produce biofuel from biomass and recycled products.”
