Eni snaps up Italian biogas producer
Italian energy group Eni announced on March 22 it would acquire FRI-EL Biogas Holding, one of Italy's leading biogas gas producers, as part of its pivot towards a lower-carbon business.
Eni's Ecofuel division has agreed on the purchase with FRI-EL Greenpower, a Gostner family holding, the major said, without divulging details of the deal. The transaction needs the approval of antitrust authorities.
FRI-EL Biogas controls 21 plants that generate power by burning biogas, as well as a plant for processing organic fraction of municipal solid waste, which Eni plans to convert to produce biomethane. Once operational, the revamped plant will supply over 50mn m3 of gas/year to the national network.
"With this deal, we have laid the foundations for strong growth in the biomethane sector, which will be distributed in Eni’s service stations, both as compressed natural gas and as LNG," Eni CEO Claudio Descalzi said in a statement. "This is a strategic business area for us on the path to completely eliminating our emissions, and represents a significant contribution to decarbonising transport and our ability to offer sustainable products to our customers. It provides a new and significant level of substance to continue on the path outlined in our strategy."
Eni is striving to produce net-zero CO2 Scope 1 and 2 emissions from upstream activities by 2030, expanding this to all of its operations by 2040. The company also announced in February it would commit to full decarbonisation of Scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions by 2050, after previously targeting only a 80% reduction by this point.