EU

Italian oil and gas company Eni and energy provider Enel are joining forces on Italy’s first carbon capture and storage (CCS) project.

Under the terms of the agreement, signed by Eni CEO Paolo Scaroni and Enel CEO Fulvio Conti, Enel will build a CO₂ capture and liquefaction plant in Brindisi in southern Italy while Eni will inject the CO₂ into the Stogit field at Cortemaggiore in the north.

An initial pilot project will test the entire process, including the pipeline transport of the liquefied CO₂ from Enel’s Brindisi thermal power station to Eni’s storage site in Cortemaggiore. The pilot plant will be ready in 2009 and injection is set to start in the autumn of 2010.

“This agreement between Eni and Enel goes in the right direction,” says Minister of the Environment Stefania Prestigiacomo. “The Government’s commitment is to support and promote these experimentations … especially for countries like Italy that will not be able to do without hydrocarbons in the medium to long term.”

Together with the Italian Environment Ministry, Eni and Enel will use the pilot project to develop the skills necessary to implement CCS on a large scale. The two companies will undertake a feasibility study for a large-scale integrated demonstration plant at an Enel clean-coal power station and the potential for CO₂ storage in Italy.

“As a final result, we will be able to use freely coal for power production,” says Eni CEO Paolo Scaroni.

For further information:
www.enel.com/en/press_room/press_releases/releases/index.aspx?iddoc=1584295
www.eni.it/en_IT/home.html
www.enel.com/en/index.aspx