NEWS - EUROPE
Eni Opens Its Bio-Refinery in Gela, Sicily, Italy
E
ni has opened the most innovative bio-refinery in Europe at Gela.
Launched in August 2019, the plant has a processing capacity of up
to 750,000 tonnes a year and will be able to treat increasing quantities of
used vegetable oil, animal fat, algae and by-products to produce high-
quality biofuels.
This makes it an innovative plant with high environmental sustainability
that can process loads that would otherwise be disposed of – at the cost
of the community and the environment – using them instead for fuel,
promoting the circular economy. •
All the petrochemical plants built in Gela since 1962 have closed
down. In addition to the €294 million that has been spent so far on
reconverting the refineries, Eni plans to invest another €73 million for
further preliminary activities and pre-treating biomass, which will be
finished by the third quarter of 2020 and will supply the bio-refinery
with second-generation raw material, from waste, raw vegetable oil and
advanced material.
The process of converting the traditional refinery into a bio-refinery
began in April 2016 and took more than 3 million hours of work by
Eni’s employees and third parties to finish. Significantly, there were
also no accidents along the way. To create the Ecofining™ plant, the two
existing desulphurisation units were modified and a steam reforming
unit was built to produce hydrogen.
Hydrogen is a basic ingredient in hydrogenated vegetable oil (HVO),
the biodiesel that, when added to fossil diesel at 15%, makes the
premium fuel Enidiesel+.
“It’s a very important day for us. In Venice, we were the first in the
world to convert a traditional refinery into a bio-refinery,’ says Eni’s
CEO, Claudio Descalzi, ‘and now we’re opening our second, which is
even more innovative. It’s a fresh example of Italian excellence. This is
a big step forwards on our path to decarbonization, something we have
been pursuing for some time but have stepped up in the last five years,
investing in efficiency and in particular in green energy production,
renewables and the circular economy.
We have been doing this by transforming organic and inorganic
substances, minimising waste and getting value out of rubbish and waste
material, whilst at the same time developing research, technologies and
industrial initiatives that will represent valuable future lines of business
for Eni. It is an important milestone on this path and we are reaching
it right here in Italy. Gela is leading the charge. Besides its new bio-
refinery, the site is also home to the pilot waste-to-fuel plant, which
has been transforming organic waste into bio-oil, biomethane and
water since last December. It is destined to become Eni’s workshop for
applying the most advanced technologies in the field of renewables and
renewables.”
Eni has more than 1,000 employees at the site in Gela, 426 of whom
work at the bio-refinery.
Building the bio-refinery in Gela will allow Eni to improve in all
environmental fields, emitting more than 70% fewer emissions (of SO2,
NOx, CO2 and dust) than traditional production cycles. Elsewhere on
the environmental front, we are carrying on reclamation, on which we
have spent more than €800 million since 2000.
There will be several operations to improve the visual impact of the site.
The highest of the old flares will be demolished, as the chimney already
has been. It will be replaced by a shorter one with less environmental
impact. A lot of other infrastructure will be demolished, including
tanks, shelters and facilities for gas recovery, diesel desulphurisation
and petrol blending. The skyline in the industrial area is set to improve
thanks to work lasting until 2022, including demolishing the SNOX
chimney, no longer in use.
Eni’s biorefinery in Gela is designed for treating advanced and
unconventional loads up to 100% of processing capacity. It is one of
the few bio-refineries in the world with such high operating flexibility.
Gela is defined by its ability to process “unconventional” second-
generation raw material from waste from food production, regenerated
used cooking oil (RUCO), animal fat (tallow) and by-products from
processing vegetable oil.
18
Transocean Cancels Order for Ocean Rig Drillship
Duo
T
he drillships in question – the Ocean Rig Santorini and the Ocean
Rig Crete – were ordered by Ocean Rig, a drilling contractor bought
last year by Transocean in a $2.7B deal.
The transaction added eight high-specification ultra-deepwater
drillships and two harsh environment semi-submersibles to the
Transocean fleet.
In addition, the acquisition included two high-specification ultra-
deepwater drillships, the 7th generation Ocean Rig Santorini and
the 8th generation Ocean Rig Crete, under construction at the Geoje
Samsung shipyard in South Korea. After some delays, the two drillships
were estimated to be delivered in 3Q 2019 and 3Q 2020, respectively.
However, Transocean on Monday said its indirect subsidiaries
would relinquish their respective interests in the two drillships under
construction to Samsung Heavy Industries.
“Upon relinquishment of the drillships, Transocean’s indirect, wholly-
owned subsidiaries will not make further payments to SHI under the
construction contracts,” Transocean said.
“The total estimated future costs associated with the delivery and
placing the drillships into service would have been approximately $1.1
billion, which includes future payments to SHI under the construction
contracts and costs related to spares, materials, and supplies, and to the
commissioning and mobilization of the rigs. The construction contracts
are not guaranteed by Transocean Ltd. or any of its affiliates,” the drilling
contractor said. •