1950s–1960s , Rome, built 1959–1962. Photo by
Paolo Monti, 1967 Eni was founded in 1953 by an existing company,
Agip, which was created in 1926 with the aim to explore for oilfields, and acquire and commercialize oil and derivatives. In March 1953,
Enrico Mattei was nominated Eni's chairman. In 1952, the logo of the then nascent Eni was selected. The logo is a six-legged dog, an imaginary animal symbolizing the sum of a car's four wheels and the two legs of its driver. Starting in 1954, Eni acquired extensive exploration rights in North Africa, signing an agreement with the Egyptian government led by
Nasser while providing an active and equal role for the crude producing countries through the establishment of joint ventures. In 1957, Eni pushed for a similar agreement, known as the "Mattei formula", to be signed with Persian Shah
Mohammad Reza Pahlavi and the
National Iranian Oil Company. In 1960, during the
Cold War period, Eni signed an agreement with the
Soviet Union for the importation of Russian crude at low prices. On 27 October 1962, Enrico Mattei's airplane mysteriously exploded near
Bascapè, on his way to
Milan from
Catania. His death was initially considered an accident, but later it was confirmed to be a murder with the aim of protecting and hiding important economic and political interests in Italy and especially abroad, as it is clearly stated in the records of the trial on the assassination of the journalist
Mauro De Mauro, who was investigating the death of Enrico Mattei. During the following years, Eni signed joint venture contracts with foreign companies to supply crude from Egypt to Iran and from Libya to Tunisia. In 1963, Eni acquired a majority stake in
Italgas.
1970s–1980s In October 1973, after the
Yom Kippur War and the OPEC embargo against the United States and the Netherlands by
OPEC members and Arab countries, a serious oil crisis occurred, causing Eni to consolidate its position in the international market by signing an agreement with
Sonatrach, the Algerian state oil entity for natural gas supply. In 1974, Eni signed an agreement with the Libyan government, followed by additional agreements with Egypt, Nigeria and Tunisia. During the mid-1970s, Eni planned a major infrastructure for transporting natural gas over long distances, by building a pipeline network of thousands of miles throughout Europe and the
Mediterranean. After the inauguration of the
Trans-Mediterranean Pipeline connecting Algeria to
Sicily through Tunisia, Eni signed a new agreement with Libya for the exploitation of
Boùri, the biggest oilfield in the centre of the
Mediterranean, and developed its international role within the oil industry.
1990s In 1992, Eni became a
joint-stock company by Law Decree, and was listed to the
Italian and
New York Stock Exchange in 1995. From 1995 to 1998, Eni successfully made four share offers, as 70% of its capital assets were sold to private shareholders. As the price of oil collapsed in 1998, like other major companies, Eni got into the melee of mergers, international acquisitions, new exploration and the foundation of real super-companies.
2000s Since 2000, Eni has been developing the
Kashagan oilfield a major offshore discovery, along the
Caspian Sea. In 2005, the
Blue Stream pipeline, projected to supply gas from southern Russia to Turkey, was inaugurated as a joint venture between Eni and
Gazprom. In 2007, Eni signed an agreement to conduct
South Stream a feasibility study with
Gazprom to import Russian gas into Europe across the
Black Sea. Activist asset manager
Knight Vinke, who owns 1% of the outstanding shares of the company, began pressuring Eni's management to operate a spin-off of Eni's gas activities. In its opinion, this would solve the undervaluation of the company and release up to 50 billion euros ($70bn) of hidden value.
2010s In 2010, Eni achieved a key production milestone in Iraqi Zubair oil field. After getting a licence in 2006 for the exploration of an offshore area in the north of Mozambique, known as Area 4, Eni announced several major natural gas discoveries between 2011 and 2012 such as
Mamba South,
Mamba North,
Mamba North East and Coral 1. In February 2014, Eni discovered oil at its Democratic Republic of the Congo offshore block. Since 2012, Eni has been selling off refining and marketing assets it owned in eastern Europe to increase profitability. By 2013 Eni had already reduced its refining capacity by 13 percent. In May 2014 Eni agreed to sell their 32.5% share in Česká rafinerská a.s. (CRC), a refining company in the Czech Republic, to MOL Group of Hungary. In June 2014, the company signed an agreement with
Sasol to acquire a 40% interest in a permit to explore 82,000-km2 offshore of South Africa's east coast. In 2014, Eni launched a new plan to convert its conventional refineries into
biorefineries: the first plant was in
Porto Marghera, in 2019 the second one opened in
Gela. In January 2015, Eni in collaboration with
Vitol Energy signed a $7 billion contract with the government of Ghana. This agreement was reached to produce oil and gas at
Cape Three Points in the Western Region of Ghana, in an attempt to enable Ghana to meet its power and energy needs. In August 2015, Eni announced the discovery of a huge gasfield off the coast of Egypt. In 2016, Eni launched Progetto Italia, which aims to redevelop its industrial areas and to create new
renewable sources production plants: in 2018 the first
photovoltaic plant was inaugurated in
Assemini, the second opened in
Porto Torres, both in
Sardinia. In July 2017, the oil giant accepted responsibility for an
oil spill affecting the Fylde coast of Blackpool in the United Kingdom. In January 2018, Eni launched its new HPC4
supercomputer, one of the most powerful computing systems which allows a more effective and fast exploration of
oil and gas reservoirs. In November 2024, Eni launched its new HPC6 supercomputer, the most powerful in
Europe and the fifth in the world, capable of executing over 600 million billion di complex mathematical operations in just one second. In March 2018, Eni reached an agreement with
MIT to fund fusion research projects run out of the MIT Plasma Science and Fusion Center (PSFC)’s newly created Laboratory for Innovation in Fusion Technologies (LIFT). The expected investment in these research projects will amount to about $2 million over the following years. The Rovuma LNG project was approved in May 2019 by the government of
Mozambique. The project is a joint venture between
ExxonMobil, Eni and
CNPC. Eni will focus on the construction and operation of the upstream facilities.
2020s In March 2021, Eni exited the Pakistani market and sold its assets to Prime International Oil & Gas Company. The deal include the assets sold, interests in eight development and production leases and four exploration licences. Prime International Oil & Gas Company, a newly established joint venture (JV) between Eni Pakistan local employees and
Hub Power Company. In 2018, Eni became the first
shareholder of the American company
Commonwealth Fusion Systems (CFS), a spin-out of the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in
Boston. CFS aims to build a fusion reactor based on
tokamak technology, much more compact and cheaper compared to other existing projects such as the international
ITER. On 5 September 2021, CFS successfully built and tested a 1:1 scale prototype of a magnet based on HTS (High Temperature Superconductors)
superconductors. The experiment demonstrated for the first time that it is possible to create a fusion chamber where the confinement of the
plasma is ensured by this type of super magnets. This kind of fusion chamber will allow the reactor to reach very high temperatures, above 100 million degrees, necessary to make the controlled fusion of
deuterium and
tritium possible and thus to produce
sustainable energy. In December 2021, ENI become the first energy company in the world to highly invest in magnetic confinement nuclear fusion, through a $1.8 billion partnership in CFS, alla Ng with
Google and
Bill Gates. In 2022, during the
Russian invasion of Ukraine, the major oil and gas companies, including Eni, reported sharp rises in interim revenues and profits. The rises are influenced by the prices of raw materials such as oil and gas which have significantly increased, due to their shortage. On 17 May 2022, Eni announced the procedures for the creation of an account with
Gazprombank in dual currency (
euro and
rubles), in order to be able to proceed with the payment of Russian gas supplies, following the unilateral amendment of the contracts ordered by the
Russian Federation. The decision was taken in agreement with the Italian government and does not violate the existing
sanctions. The
European Commissioner for Economy Paolo Gentiloni and the competent Russian federal authorities have confirmed that payments will continue to be made in euros and that the conversion operations will be carried out by Russian clearing agents without the involvement of the
Russian Central Bank. In June 2022, Eni signed a joint venture with
QatarEnergy for the North Field East (NFE) expansion which will be the worlds largest LNG project and begin production in 2025. Eni holds a 3.125% stake in the four LNG trains estimated to produce 8 million tonnes a year each. In October 2023, QatarEnergy signed LNG supply deal with Italy's Eni for 27 years. Affiliates of QatarEnergy and Eni signed a long-term sale and purchase agreement for up to 1 million tons per year (mtpa) of liquefied natural gas (LNG) from Qatar's North Field expansion project. After 10 years of force majeure, Eni,
Sonatrach and
BP resumed exploration in their blocks in the Ghadames Basin (A-B) and offshore Block C in August 2023, continuing their contract obligations. In January 2024, Eni acquired Neptune Energy for $4.9 billion. The list of assets includes Neptune’s involvement in the Geng North-1 gas field in
Indonesia, as well as projects in
Western Europe,
Australia and
North Africa. Neptune’s business in
Norway was purchased directly by
Vår Energi, a subsidiary of Eni. The assets in
Germany were released before the transaction, and will remain with Neptune, managed by the
shareholders as a separate group. In March 2024, Eni made discoveries off the
Ivory Coast. In July 2024, new oil and gas was discovered in Block 9 of the Yopaat-1 EXP exploration well located off the shore of Mexico in the
Sureste Basin. In July 2024, Vår Energi extended its supply deal with Eni until 2036 for up to 5bcm of natural gas. On 13 February 2025, Eni announced its
Formula One return by supplying fuels to
Renault-powered
BWT Alpine F1 Team from 2025 season onwards. In April 2025, Eni announced that it would buyback $1.7 billion in shares over the course of the year even as the outlook on oil continues to worsen. Eni had an adjusted net profit in the first three months of 2025 of just 1.41 billion euros, which was an 11% decrease from the previous year which caused the company to revise its spending plan. Increases in underlying hydrocarbon production is expected to grow by 4% per year until 2028. == Financial data ==