Eni’s Chairman of the Board of Directors, Giuseppe Zafarana, and CEO, Claudio Descalzi, today celebrated Eni’s 70th anniversary by hosting Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s video message, along with a delegation of Italian government ministers.

The event took place in the Ostiense district of Rome at the Gasometer facility, owned by Eni, where the company launched the first technological innovation hub dedicated to new energy supply chains and industrial applied research in collaboration with research and academic institutions.

Giuseppe Zafarana, Chairman of Eni’s Board of Directors, commented:
“Since 1953, Eni has been accompanying Italy through the great economic and social transformations of our time, leading change from the front. This is thanks to core skills such as technological leadership, the ability to create valuable partnerships, and to respond to complex challenges. Eni has established itself as an international leader supporting a vision of the energy transition that is fair and equal, while also ensuring security of supply and economic sustainability. Eni today honors its 70 years of history and looks with confidence to the future supported by our people, whose professionalism and technical skills are a core part of our great heritage.”

Claudio Descalzi, Eni’s CEO commented:
“Throughout its seventy-year history, Eni has been constantly evolving and innovating, anticipating change to stay ahead of the curve. In recent years, we’ve charted our very own energy transition path, undertaking a profound transformation across strategy, operations, and culture. For a global, diversified company, this was not an easy task. We have all learned to think and act differently: new industrial models, new businesses, laser-focused on research and innovation, and constantly striving to integrate new learnings in our processes.

Increasingly, we’ve managed to integrate ourselves into the communities where we operate, supporting development, building relationships, and sharing their realities. This is a form of long-term value that exceeds short-term profit. In practice, this means directing a large share of the energy we produce to local markets, creating jobs and enhancing energy access, while also promoting health, business, agricultural and educational development. This approach allows us to create real partnerships.

Eni is the example of a strong, positive, respectful Italy, capable of adapting and transforming itself to achieve incredible results. This is the vision of Italy we proudly bring to the world every day."

Eni was founded on the 10th of February 1953, by the Law no. 136 of the Italian Parliament establishing the “Ente Nazionale Idrocarburi”. The new energy company took over from the previous Agip, and was founded by Enrico Mattei, entrepreneur, Member of Parliament and former partisan fighter. Right from the start, the birth of Eni was a wager on the future, also because initially, Mattei was supposed to dissolve and liquidate Agip. Aware of the importance for Italy of building its energy independence, working with technicians and engineers, not only did Mattei not dissolve Agip, but relaunched it, turning it into a new company that instantly became the driver of Italian modernisation, at a time when the country was still mostly agricultural. In a short time, Eni grew to become a company working internationally with its own distinctive character.

An evolution based on competitive performance and skills

In the following decades, Eni continued to put its resources at the disposal of the country, accompanying it towards major economic and social changes. In the early Nineties, the company was listed on the stock exchange, undergoing a process of rationalisation and industrial renewal based, as ever, on competitive performance and technological innovation. A new radical development phase began in 2014, aimed at responding to the challenges of climate change and the energy transition. Eni changed once more, and even more radically, welcoming and developing all the solutions and technologies needed to offer its customers increasingly decarbonised products and services, with an approach that brings value to the whole energy chain.

History of the six-legged dog

Enrico Mattei, Eni's founder, wanted to use a competition for ideas, open to everyone in Italy and promoted in the magazine Domus, to design a logo. It was from this public appeal that the six-legged dog was born. Initially meant to represent only Agip’s Supercortemaggiore brand petrol, its popularity meant it went on to become the symbol of Eni itself.

The competition was open to everyone in Italy in a bid to convey a message of trust and openness to the whole population, and had a total prize pot of 10 million Lira, roughly equivalent to €160,000. Leading figures from the worlds of art and communications made up the jury, including painter Mario Sironi and Gio Ponti, one of Italy’s most famous architects.

The response was astonishing. More than 4,000 sketches were submitted and it took 14 meetings for the jury to decide the winner. Alongside the amateur illustrators and graphic artists who submitted entries were some big names in post-war Italian art and creativity including Armando Testa, Fortunato Depero and Marcello Nizzoli.

In September 1952 the committee chose Luigi Broggini, an important Italian sculptor who had lived in exile in Paris and Switzerland during the Fascist years, as the winner. 

His six-legged dog was seen as a visual synthesis of the strength, energy and optimism that were driving Italy's economic miracle. Enrico Mattei himself was a big fan of the logo – and Italy took warmly to the symbol. The impossible six-legged animal called to mind the chimaera of ancient mythology and soon became familiar across the country.

Broggini submitted his design under the name of Giuseppe Guzzi, as he had something of an intellectual aversion to putting his name to a promotional or commercial product. Although the artist's true identity was known by some, it was only after Broggini's death in 1983 that his son officially confirmed it. 

It did not take long during Italy’s boom years for the six-legged dog to become a  symbol that announced two things to visitors to Italy: petrol stations and their accompanying quality cafés showcasing Italian ingredients. 

As Eni grew, expanding beyond Italy into Africa and the Middle East, geologists, engineers, drillers and technicians moved with their families to Egypt, Iran, Libya and Tunisia. Wherever they went, the familiar six-legged dog flew above them every day on the flagpoles of platforms and oil fields, becoming a unifying symbol for Eni's men and women and their shared passion for overcoming challenges and making an Italian company a global player.

In 1992, the Italian government decided to privatise Eni, attracting the support and backing of both ordinary Italian savers and institutional investors who were betting on the strength and prospects of a company that was determined to make history in the global energy sector. Eni was listed on the Italian Borsa and the New York Stock Exchange in 1995 and went from being a national hydrocarbon company to an international corporation.

This change demanded a restyled image reflecting a rebirth as an agile, modern company in line with its new global position on the stock exchange. Noorda was called on once again to rethink the corporate image of the modern Eni Group.

The new graphic project was a process of progressive abstraction, based on simple elements that were also strong and evocative. The challenge was to bring together the different aspects of the Eni brand and show the unified character of the Group. The dog was removed from the yellow background with its black borders and rounded edges - very much associated with the petrol stations - and combined with the Eni logo within a perfect square. At the centre, a red horizontal line separated the dog and the Eni logotype. The dog was imperceptibly shortened to make it the same length of the Eni logotype and the word ‘Group’ was added, completing the transition to a corporate brand designed to encompass all the Group's activities.

KeyFacts Energy: Eni Italy country profile