The Minister for the Environment and the Protection of the Territory and the Sea, Sergio Costa, and the CEO of Eni, Claudio Descalzi, have signed a memorandum of understanding between the parties according to which Eni undertakes to carry out a program of activities of decarbonisation, environmental mitigation, redevelopment and enhancement of the areas of the Gela multi-company site, no longer using mineral oil production and processing plants.
The program includes: the decommissioning of all the disused areas of the industrial site in ten years and their return to new functions, with a first phase, in the next three years, of demolishing the plants no longer functional for biofuel production , in a total area of over twenty hectares; the realization of a site decarbonisation project based on the application of innovative technologies owned by Eni, with the objectives of creating an integrated process for capturing and reusing carbon dioxide, which will be converted into cement and bio-oil material, achieving a significant reduction in direct GHG emissions, and to promote a sustainable development model from an environmental, economic and social point of view; the removal of scrap and artefacts present on the seabed along the pier is confirmed for a strip of 500 meters per side; the definition of a project that provides for the best ways to recover the cooling water collection channel, including through planting, and its subsequent use; Eni's commitment to carry out a series of interventions aimed at the planting of specific tree species, aimed at ensuring the mitigation of Co2's contribution to the production of biofuels. These projects will be flanked by the development of the Argo and Cassiopea gas fields, which in the hydrocarbon research and production sector represents the first example of a project capable of reaching carbon neutrality, thanks to the contribution of energy produced by plants photovoltaic, and also without any visual impact, with the use of already industrialized and redeveloped soil within the refinery perimeter and no discharge of water or other wastewater to the sea.
Eni's CEO, Claudio Descalzi, commented: “This is a cutting-edge program, oriented towards sustainable industrial development of the site, the principles of the circular economy and the use of the most advanced technologies. This agreement follows and completes the successful reconversion of the Gela refinery into a biorefinery, through which Eni has launched, with a view to a circular economy, an industrial transformation process of the site capable of producing biofuels from biomass and recycling products ".