Developing Large-Scale Carbon Management in Europe: Eni’s Vision for Integrated Capture, Transport and Offshore Storage Solutions

Building Europe’s Carbon Management Backbone for a Competitive Net-Zero Economy

Developing large-scale carbon management is no longer an option but a necessity for Europe to achieve climate neutrality while safeguarding industrial competitiveness. Geopolitical shifts, environmental challenges and technological revolutions are reshaping global growth, energy security and industrial dynamics. In this complex and uncertain context, it is important not to simply adapt but to steer: anticipating trends, assessing risks, and seizing opportunities through innovation is essential. This proactive approach defines Eni’s vision for the energy transition.

With more than 31,000 people across 64 countries, Eni is an integrated energy tech company committed to reaching net zero by 2050. This transformation relies on a diversified portfolio of solutions adopting a technologically neutral approach that balances technical, economic, and social considerations, combining growth and sustainability to accelerate the transition.

This portfolio includes renewables from solar and wind, biofuels, biochemistry, Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS), and research into new paradigms such as magnetic confinement fusion. 

Among the above-mentioned solutions, CCS stands out as a key lever for decarbonization, leading international organizations such as the IEA, IPCC and IRENA consider CCS essential for achieving global climate targets, estimating that by 2050 storage capacity must reach 6–7 billion tons of CO₂ per year, a hundredfold increase from today.

In particular CCS offers a safe, proven, mature and scalable solution for hard-to-abate sectors such as cement, chemicals, steel, glass, and fertilizers, where no alternative solutions are equally effective in terms of avoided emissions and efficient in cost and timing. These sectors are vital to Europe’s economy: without viable decarbonization options, they risk losing competitiveness or relocating, a phenomenon known as “carbon leakage”, undermining European employment levels and industrial strength without delivering real climate benefits.

 Eni’s Integrated CCS Strategy: Scaling Proven Technology by Leveraging Experience, Infrastructure and Partnerships

For Eni, CCS is both a lever to reduce its own emissions and an opportunity to create value through a new transition-linked business. By leveraging Eni’s expertise and CCS distinctive model based on the conversion of its offshore depleted gas fields and the possibility of reusing existing infrastructure, the company is developing cost-effective large-scale CCS hubs with an accelerated time to market. This approach allowed Eni to achieve a leadership position in developing CCS projects in Europe.

In the development of its activities, including those related to the energy transition, Eni applies a “satellite model,” creating entities focused on low-carbon products and solutions that can grow autonomously thanks to their capability to attract investments. This is the case for fast growing companies such as Plenitude and Enilive. CCS is being developed as part of this model. 

Within this framework Eni has also established “Eni CCUS Holding,” which consolidates global CCS assets, including UK projects (HyNet and Bacton), the EU Connecting Europe Facility grant awardee L10 project in the Netherlands, and future rights for Ravenna CCS in Italy. 

Last December, Eni announced the closing of a 49.99% co-control stake sale in Eni CCUS Holding to Global Infrastructure Partners (GIP), a leading global infrastructure investor now part of BlackRock. This partnership signals growing interest from financial investors in CCS as a scalable business opportunity, confirming that CCS is not only a technological solution for decarbonization but also an emerging sector capable of attracting long-term capital.

 Connecting Emitters to Offshore Storage: A Pan-European Network from the North Sea to the Mediterranean

In the United Kingdom, Liverpool Bay CCS, located in the Northwest of England and North Wales (referred to as the HyNet North West encompassing the emitters cluster), was selected by the government in 2021 as one of two CCS priority hubs for industrial decarbonization. The project aims to cut emissions in one of the country’s most active industrial regions by transporting CO₂ captured from local emitters and storing it in Eni’s depleted gas fields approximately 30 kilometers offshore. HyNet involves cement plants, waste-to-energy facilities and a future hydrogen production site, with additional partners expected to join. Eni will manage the CO₂ transport and storage network, starting with an initial capacity of 4.5 million tons per year and scalable to 10 million tons after 2030. The project is expected to be operational in 2028, as per the emitter’s schedule. It reached financial close with UK authorities in April 2025 with the award of an economic licence by the UK Gov to Eni, initiating the construction phase. In September 2025, two industrial partners secured financing for the first capture installations, with a combined capacity of 1.4 million tons per year. 

In the UK, Eni also operates the Bacton CCS project, aiming at creating an integrated CCS hub to support the industrial decarbonization of the East of England and the Thames Estuary area near London. The storage site will be the Hewett depleted gas field in the southern North Sea, with an estimated capacity exceeding 300 million tons of CO₂. Together, HyNet and Bacton form a cornerstone of the UK’s strategy for industrial decarbonization.

Across Europe, CCS has moved to the forefront of policy. The EU’s Industrial Carbon Management Strategy launched in 2024 envisions a continent-wide system for capturing, transporting and storing CO₂, with a storage capacity target of at least 50 million tons per year by 2030.

This framework is reinforced by the EU Emissions Trading System, which imposes a rising cost on CO₂ emissions, and by dedicated funding streams that support the development of decarbonization technologies and networks. 

Eni contributes to European target with two projects: L10 in the Netherlands and Ravenna CCS in Italy.

The L-10 project in the Netherlands will convert depleted gas fields in the Dutch North Sea into permanent CO₂ storage sites,  and it is part of an emerging European infrastructure connecting industrial emitters to offshore storage hubs.

 Ravenna CCS: Southern Europe’s Anchor Hub for Industrial Decarbonization and Long-Term Competitiveness

Italy is moving decisively in the same direction. The Italian National Energy and Climate Plan (NECP) sets a target of 4 million tons of captured and stored annually by 2030. A recent study published in August 2025 by Italian Ministry of Environment and Energy Security (MASE) shows that for hard-to-abate sectors, where renewable energy has very limited applicability, CCS emerges as the most economically competitive option right after energy efficiency, which remains the most cost-effective solution. In these sectors where the remaining potential for increased energy efficiency appears slim since high average levels have been already achieved, a different solution is required. Importantly, the MASE analysis includes infrastructure costs for capture plants, transport and storage, while equivalent system costs for other technologies, such as grid upgrades, H2 and battery storage, are not fully accounted for, potentially underestimating the relevant investments required. This fact-based comparative analysis demonstrates the fundamental role CCS can play in safeguarding industrial competitiveness and accelerating decarbonization of hard to abate sectors where other solutions have limited effect or are more expensive.

Within this national and European context, the strategic importance of Ravenna CCS, developed as a 50/50 joint venture by Eni (operator) and Snam, extends well beyond Italy’s borders. It is not merely an Italian initiative; it is a key infrastructure for securing European industrial competitiveness and advancing climate objectives. Ravenna CCS provides a concrete, scalable and secure solution to reduce industrial emissions across Mediterranean, supporting the energy transition while maximizing the value of existing EU investments and fostering the creation of an integrated, resilient CCS supply chain in Southern Europe. 

Furthermore,

Ravenna CCS has the advantage of exploiting depleted fields and at very competitive cost leveraging on the infrastructure (pipes, wells, platforms) already in place, resulting in a total unit technical cost of less than €80 per ton. This mechanism applies to Eni projects in general.

The project follows a phased approach with progressive capacity growth. Phase 1, started in August 2024, achieved outstanding results by capturing CO₂ from Eni’s gas treatment plant and storing it in the depleted Porto Corsini Mare Ovest reservoir, with an injection capacity of up to 25,000 tons per year and a capture efficiency of over 90% in the most severe industrial conditions in terms of CO2 concentration, equal to approximately 2.4% at atmospheric pressure.

In terms of energy efficiency, the power supply is guaranteed by the recovery of self-produced thermal energy and by electrical energy from renewable sources. Resultantly the volume of CO2 captured effectively corresponds to net quantity reduced.

Phase 2, under development, aims at scaling to 4 million tons per year by 2030 while further expansions after 2030 could reach approximately 16 million tons annually, leveraging the vast storage potential of Eni-operated depleted gas fields in the Adriatic offshore, estimated at over 500 million tons.

This storage potential represents about 70% of all announced capacity in Southern Europe and the Mediterranean, positioning Ravenna CCS as the reference hub for geological CO₂ storage in the region. Notably, Phase 2 alone will contribute roughly 8% of the EU’s 50 million tons per year storage capacity target by 2030, foreseen by the Industrial Carbon Management framework and set by the Net Zero Industry Act, underlining Ravenna’s central role in Europe’s decarbonization strategy. Equally important is the project’s flexibility: through multimodal access options, offshore transport by ship and onshore transport via pipeline, rail or truck, Ravenna CCS can serve Italian and European emitters, creating an open access decarbonization infrastructure for the entire Southern European region. This design enables multiple sectors and geographies to connect efficiently, reduces dependency on single transport modes, and supports phased investments that align with policy signals and evolving demand.  Market interest is strong, with more than 30 preliminary agreements signed with national and international emitters, representing over 30 million tons per year, including 6 million tons per year already supported by European funding.

In addition to the environmental benefits Ravenna CCS will also provide for tangible economic and social benefits. By providing industries with viable decarbonization options, CCS contributes to preserve competitiveness, protecting jobs and create new opportunities in a high-tech sector aligned with Europe’s climate ambitions (about17,000 long term jobs according to a 2023 study from The European House Ambrosetti).

In a context driven increasingly by ETS dynamics and carbon cost visibility, enabling access to a credible, scalable storage capacity can prevent carbon leakage and reinforce Europe’s industrial base, complementing parallel investments in efficiency, electrification, renewables and other solutions.

By combining innovation, partnerships and a long-term vision, Ravenna CCS stands out as a cornerstone of European climate policy implementation, as it establishes a strategic hub in Southern Europe where technical capabilities enable substantial progress towards climate targets in synergy with industrial resilience.