Amid ongoing volatility and geopolitical tension, what is the core principle currently guiding Eni’s strategy?
The key principle is consistency. In a volatile and fragmented world, consistency becomes a competitive advantage. Over the past decade, we have built a model that is increasingly less dependent on market cycles, but based on a clear industrial logic that works in any scenario. This is what has allowed us to deliver strong results even in the most complex phases of the market.
Our strategy is not a sum of decisions. It is a system: what matters is not the single element, but how all the components work together. Exploration creates value, which we bring into production through execution, supported by technology that reduces risk and a financial approach – based on the early monetisation of our major upstream discoveries and the creation of high-potential business combinations – that ensures industrial strength combined with rapid value creation.
As we look ahead, this system gives us strong visibility on cash generation and allows us to maintain a solid financial structure, with disciplined capital allocation and a low level of leverage. Flexibility matters, but only if it is built on structure. Consistency and discipline are what allow us to remain resilient in any market condition.
How do upstream, transition and financial strategy fit together in your overall model?
Besides our E&P business, another cornerstone of our strategy is the development of transition businesses. Upstream, transition businesses and financial strategy are fully integrated and work together within the model, which is based on innovation and technological development. Upstream generates strong cash flows over the plan, providing the foundation for growth and returns. As for transition-related businesses, over the years we have undertaken an industrial transformation based on technology that has enabled us to lay the foundations for their creation: renewables, biorefining and CCS.
We carved out the renewables and biorefining businesses from Eni’s perimeter, integrating them with the retail business, and created two satellite companies – Plenitude and Enilive – capable of growing independently and attracting capital from leading international funds. The same applies to the company dedicated to our CCS projects, which has also seen the entry of another major international fund. Plenitude and Enilive, in particular, are now worth nearly €24 billion and generate around €3 billion in EBITDA. Until just a few years ago, they did not even exist. In our view, this is the only real way to deliver the energy transition, combined with a constant commitment to reducing emissions also across our traditional upstream activities.
Oil and gas remain central to your plan. How do you see the role of E&P going forward?
Demand is growing, security of supply is critical, and upstream remains our main value generator. Since 2014, our exploration activities have led to the discovery of more than 11 billion barrels of resources, enabling a reserve replacement ratio of 167% in 2025, with the expectation of averaging over 140% across the 2026–2030 period.
Today we have the strongest portfolio of E&P projects in our history, supporting a significant increase in production, driven by a strong project pipeline. The strength of this portfolio lies in its diversification – both geographic and technological – which reduces risk and gives us flexibility in execution. A key part of this model relies on our business combinations like Searah, our joint venture with Petronas which combines assets in Indonesia and Malaysia, and will boast more than 300,000 barrels of production per day from day one, over 3 billion barrels of discovered resources and significant exploration potential.
Another important element is project execution, and Congo LNG is a clear example: production started just one year after final investment decision with Phase 1, leveraging existing infrastructure and fast-track development. Phase 2, based on the Nguya FLNG unit, delivered its first LNG cargo in February 2026, ahead of schedule, increasing overall capacity to around 3 million tonnes per year. This is what differentiates our model: combining resource strength with speed of execution and capital efficiency.
Technology is often cited as a differentiating factor for Eni.
What does that mean in practice?
Technology is a core part of our strategy. We chose to keep key capabilities in-house and invest in them consistently. This gives us control, speed and a better understanding of risk. We invest around €200 million per year in R&D alone, with seven research centres, more than 1,000 researchers and around 10,000 patents. If we take into consideration total spending on innovation (including investments in Open Innovation vehicles and the development of digital solutions, including HPC systems and frontier technologies) we are in the region of half a billion euros per year.
However, it’s not only about scale. It’s about how technology is integrated across the entire value chain. Advanced computing is central to our model. Our HPC systems improve subsurface understanding, reduce risk and increase success rates, supporting faster development and more efficient execution across the portfolio. This capability is now evolving further, with the integration of new computing paradigms such as quantum computing, which will enable us to tackle increasingly complex problems in areas like materials discovery, system optimisation and simulation of physical systems.
In the Oil & Gas domain, our development model is based on ‘appraise while developing’, a phased approach that includes reuse of assets, allowing us to accelerate execution and improve efficiency. Technology is a core part of this model, supporting our ability to quickly convert discoveries into value and to maintain capital discipline.
In our operations, deployment of innovative technologies, including digitalisation of our plants, drilling automation and AI, increases our efficiency and reduces non-productive and overall drilling time, contributing to more robust and safer operations and leading to both economic and emissions improvements.
At the same time, technology is enabling the scaling of new energy solutions. From biofuels and renewable power to carbon capture and storage, and to breakthrough technologies such as magnetic confinement fusion, where we are actively working with partners to accelerate industrialisation, clearly innovation is fully embedded in our industrial approach. This means that technology is not a standalone factor, but a fully integrated driver of growth, efficiency and transformation across both our traditional and transition businesses.
Your “satellite model” is often described as innovative. How does it support your growth?
The satellite model is fundamentally about capital allocation and expanding the financing capacity of each business according to its specific growth profile, capital intensity and risk characteristics.
The energy transition requires simultaneous investment across very different activities: upstream, renewables, biofuels, mobility, retail and new technologies.
A fully centralised structure would inevitably constrain growth, because all businesses would compete for the same pool of capital and be valued through a single corporate lens.
Our model is designed to overcome this limitation. We create focused and strategically coherent entities that remain industrially integrated with Eni – leveraging our technology, trading capabilities, project execution and operational expertise – while gaining access to dedicated pools of capital and investors aligned with their own business models and growth trajectories and anticipating cash generation.
This approach allows each business not only to accelerate its development, but also to optimise its cost of capital and capture the valuation multiples most appropriate to its sector or geography, particularly in areas with strong growth potential. In the transition businesses, for example, Plenitude combines renewable generation – with 5.8 GW installed today and a target of 15 GW by 2030 – with a growing retail base of more than 11 million customers. Enilive integrates bio-refining, sustainable mobility and an extensive European distribution network, targeting 5 million tonnes of biofuel production capacity. In upstream, we applied the same logic through entities such as Vår Energi in Norway, Azule Energy in Angola, Searah in Indonesia and Ithaca Energy in the UK – structures designed to unlock value, maximise regional growth opportunities and expand financing capacity without placing the full burden on Eni’s balance sheet.
Since 2019, the model has generated around €15 billion of value through portfolio optimisation, partnerships, dividends and the development of these businesses. But beyond the financial contribution, the real strategic advantage is flexibility: the ability to grow multiple businesses simultaneously, attract differentiated capital, and maintain strict financial discipline while preserving balance sheet resilience.
