Eni updates biofuel capacity targets

In Italy, Argus reports that Italian integrated oil firm Eni has pushed back its target to double its hydrotreated vegetable oil (HVO) production capacity to 2mn t/yr by one year to 2025. After that, the company said capacity will grow at a much faster pace than previously expected.

Speaking at Eni’s 2022-25 strategy day, chief executive Claudio Descalzi said the firm’s HVO production capacity would increase to up to 6mn t/yr by around 2035. This is compared with a previous target of 5mn t/yr by 2050. Eni currently runs a 650,000 t/yr HVO unit at Gela in Sicily and a 350,000 t/yr plant at Venice.

The company said the 2025 capacity target would be accomplished by “the expansion of the Venice plant and another traditional refinery conversion”.

Descalzi said the firm’s HVO plants will be part of a new sustainable mobility segment in the company. This will include a “robust supply of diversified feedstock”. Eni has signed deals with partner countries in Africa to develop “a network of agro-hubs” to boost feedstock options and help phase out the use of palm oil as an HVO feedstock by 2023. The target given by Descalzi today was 35pc of “vertical integration” of its own feedstock by 2025.