15-Year Loan Eni Secures 500 Million Euro Loan for New Biorefinery in Italy

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A 15-year loan has been secured by Eni from the European Investment Bank. The amount will be used to convert the Hydrocracker unit of Eni’s Sannazzaro de’ Burgondi refinery in the Italian province of Pavia into a biorefinery.

Milan/Italy – Recently the European Investment Bank (EIB) and Eni have signed a 15-year loan for 500 million euros to convert selected units of Eni’s Sannazzaro de’ Burgondi refinery, located in the Italian province of Pavia, into a biorefinery. The agreement was signed by EIB Vice-President Gelsomina Vigliotti and Eni CEO Claudio Descalzi.

The project involves converting the refinery’s Hydrocracker (HDC2) unit using Ecofining technology, and building a pre-treatment plant for waste materials like used cooking oils and animal fats, as well as waste from the agri-food industry, which comprise the main feedstock used by Enilive (Eni’s company devoted to achieving more sustainable mobility) to produce hydrotreated vegetable oil (HVO) biofuels.

With its proprietary Ecofining technology, Enilive produces HVO – a biofuel made from renewable feedstocks (pursuant to the EU Renewable Energy Directive) such as used cooking oils and waste from the agri-food industry. Pure HVO can be used in approved engines, and is already available at more than 1,600 Enilive service stations across Europe. From 2028, the Sannazzaro plant will start producing HVO diesel biofuels and the sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) biojet, with a production capacity of around 550,000 tons per year.

Building on existing utilities and infrastructure, the project will complement conventional fuel production with HVO diesel biofuels and SAF, helping reduce the carbon footprint of transport and decarbonize the aviation sector, for which SAF is currently the only available solution. By diversifying the product offering on the market, the project will also strengthen Italian and EU energy security, and serve the objectives of RE Power EU by expanding Europe’s biofuel production capacity.

The project follows a 500 million euros financing agreement signed in July 2025 to convert Eni’s Livorno refinery into a biorefinery. Transforming part of the Sannazzaro de’ Burgondi refinery as well pursues Enilive’s strategic objective: increasing biofuel production capacity to 5 million tons by 2030, including over 2 million tons of SAF production capacity. Biofuels are currently produced at Enilive’s biorefineries in Venice and Gela, and at the St Bernard Renewables biorefinery in Louisiana in the United States (a joint venture in which Enilive holds a 50 % stake). These will be joined in 2026 by Italy’s third biorefinery in Livorno, followed by two biorefineries currently under construction in Malaysia and South Korea. A fourth biorefinery in Italy, in Priolo, Sicily, will be developed together with Q8 by 2028.

“This financing represents strategic support for a project with high environmental and industrial value, contributing to the decarbonization of the transport sector, particularly aviation. Through this initiative, the EIB aims to strengthen Europe’s capacity to produce advanced fuels and to promote the circular and sustainable use of resources,” said EIB Vice-President Gelsomina Vigliotti.

Eni CEO Claudio Descalzi said, “This new agreement with the EIB demonstrates the effectiveness and robustness of the strategy we pursue through our businesses related to the energy transition. To deliver a tangible transition towards energy solutions that have an increasingly low environmental impact, it is essential to create businesses that can grow and generate value. We achieve this by combining technology and the ability to deliver industrial-scale projects on the one hand, with a broad and growing customer base on the other. We see biorefining and biofuels as a fundamental component to support the progressive decarbonization of transport – applicable across all segments of the sector, and already well aligned with existing demand. We are the second largest producer of biofuels in Europe and are working on three refinery conversions in Italy. This follows the completion of two others in Venice and Gela, which are already making a major contribution towards a more environmentally sustainable supply for the transport sector.”

Demand for SAF, driven by the blending mandates of the Re Fuel EU Aviation Regulation, is expected to grow rapidly from 2030 onwards – underpinning the technical and economic robustness of the initiative and its long-term sustainability. HVO biofuels play a key role, as they can deliver an immediate contribution to emissions reduction along value chains for the entire transport sector, including aviation, road, maritime and rail transport.

The conversion of the Sannazzaro site is consistent with the strategy of Eni and Enilive to increase biofuel production in response to growing demand in Europe and Italy, both to meet the emissions reduction targets set out in the Renewable Energy Directive (Red III), and to comply with Italian regulations on placing pure biofuels on the market. In 2024 biofuels accounted for 4 % of worldwide energy consumption in transport, and are expected to reach 9 % by 2035 and 12 % by 2050, based on the IEA Net Zero scenario of the World Energy Outlook 2025.

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