Eni announces that, thanks to the admission of the integrated project of Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) Callisto to the European list of Projects of Common Interest (PCI Projects), the Ravenna CO2 storage hub, which Eni as operator is developing in JV with Snam, will play a key role in the creation of an international supply chain with high technological content in the sector of decarbonisation.
The Callisto (CArbon LIquefaction transportation and STOrage) Mediterranean CO2 Network integrated CCS project, jointly proposed by Eni and Snam with the collaboration of Air Liquide which is also its coordinator and which hinges on the Ravenna CCS CO2 storage hub, was selected by the European Commission to become part of the list of Projects of Common Interest (PCI). The project was chosen, passing the selection process, together with 13 other projects dedicated to CO2 capture and storage.
In detail, Callisto aims to develop a CCS value chain in South-Western Europe, focusing on the decarbonisation of Italian industrial areas, starting with that of Ravenna and Ferrara and the Fos-Marseille Hub, in France. The project has Eni and Snam as its contacts in Italy and Air Liquide for the Fos-Marseille industrial cluster in France. The initiative is also promoted by 16 other companies operating in the industrial clusters involved.
The project, leveraging the large total storage capacity of the Ravenna CCS hub, estimated at over 500 million tonnes, aims to develop the largest network in the Mediterranean for the capture, transport and storage of CO2 by offering a decarbonization for Hard to Abate industries (such as cement factories, fertilizers, steel mills etc.) proposing itself as a reference for Southern Europe.
Admission to the list of PCI projects will allow the project, once it has passed the steps of the ongoing process whose conclusion is expected in 2024, to be able to access the Connecting Europe Facility Fund (CEF) aimed at obtaining fund financing lost to support the studies and development of infrastructures for the reception, transport and storage of CO2.
The start of Phase 1 of the CCS Ravenna project is scheduled for the beginning of 2024 with the injection for permanent storage of 25 thousand tonnes of CO2 per year, captured by Eni’s Casal Borsetti gas plant. The industrial development of Phase 2, which is expected to start by 2026, will make it possible to reach a storage capacity of 4 million tonnes per year by 2030; further expansions could bring volumes up to 16 million tons of CO2 per year.
In addition to providing an important contribution to combating the climate-altering emissions of the Hard to Abate industries, the Ravenna CCS project will encourage the creation of a national supply chain with high technological content in the decarbonisation sector, enhancing local skills and implementation capabilities and, more generally, the country’s . From an employment point of view, the project will provide a decisive contribution in protecting the existing level, linked to the traditional system, and at the same time in promoting the creation of a significant number of new jobs, direct and indirect, thanks to the development of the supply chains involved in decarbonization project.
Eni has developed extensive experience in gas storage in depleted fields over many decades and intends to leverage its skills to reconvert part of the existing infrastructure into carbon dioxide storage hubs to decarbonise its own and third-party industrial activities at competitive costs and with a rapid time to market.
