Our activities in Ravenna

The CO₂ capture and storage project

Following similar projects that are already operational or undergoing development in Northern Europe, Eni (as Operator) and Snam are developing the Ravenna CCS project. Using the large capacity of the depleted Adriatic gas fields, this project aims to create the reference hub for CO₂ storage in Southern Europe and the Mediterranean, and one of the largest in the world.

The initial phase of the project in 2024, will be aimed at capturing 25,000 tonnes of CO₂ from Eni's Casalborsetti gas processing plant in Ravenna. Once captured, the CO₂ will be transported to the Porto Corsini Mare Ovest platform and finally injected into the depleted gas field of the same name, offshore Ravenna.  

In the industrial phase, starting in 2027, the plan is to store 4 million tonnes of CO₂ to contribute to the decarbonization of hard-to-abate industries such as steel, cement, ceramics and chemistry. This way, we will obtain a low-emission production cluster. 

From 2030 onwards, the large capacity of the reservoirs will allow us to increase storage to 16 million tonnes per year or more, depending on market demand.

Thanks to the admission of the Callisto integrated Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) project to the European list of Projects of Common Interest (PCI Projects), the Ravenna CO₂ storage hub will play a key role in the creation of a high-tech international supply chain in the decarbonization sector. Inclusion on the PCI project list, which was submitted in November 2023 and is now in force, will allow the project to compete for access to the Connecting Europe Facility Fund (CEF) once it has completed the steps of the current process, which is expected to be completed in 2024. The CEF fund is aimed at providing grants to support the study and development of infrastructure for the capture, transport and storage of CO₂.

Furthermore, due to its potential, Ravenna CCS is participating in HERCCULES, an international research project that aims to accelerate the deployment of CO₂ capture, storage and reuse in Mediterranean Europe.

Natural gas production

Ravenna is part of the Northern Central District (DICS), dedicated to the almost exclusive production of natural gas from offshore platforms. The gas also feeds the Eni Power power plant that supplies energy to the industrial complex and mainly to the distribution network. In Emilia-Romagna, production activity has coexisted for decades with tourism, fishing and aquaculture, thanks to a monitoring and environmental protection system that is considered as a model worldwide. While gas extraction continues from active fields, decommissioned facilities are gradually being dismantled according to ministerial initiatives. A first batch of offshore structures will rolled out from 2023-2024. As part of decommissioning, we are also pursuing circular economy initiatives involving the reconversion of an old offshore platform into an artificial ecosystem suitable for colonisation by marine organisms, with the aim of creating a marine science park that will be supported by national research organisations.

Ponticelle: enhancement and revitalisation of the area

In Ravenna, through Eni Rewind, we are also involved in the environmental rehabilitation of brownfield sites. Our flagship initiative is the Ponticelle project, which we are developing in partnership with Herambiente, a multi-utility company based in Emilia-Romagna. Once the remediation operations have been completed, Ponticelle will house a soil bio-recovery platform and a multi-functional waste pre-treatment facility, thus becoming a hub for sustainable remediation, waste valorisation and energy production from renewable sources. As part of its regeneration initiatives, Plenitude has successfully completed a photovoltaic plant with 6MW installed capacity. The plant is made up of over 10,000 state-of-the-art monocrystalline silicon photovoltaic panels and will generate an amount of energy equivalent to the consumption of over 3,000 households.