• The financing will be used to convert part of the Sannazzaro refinery into a biofuel production facility, supporting the decarbonisation of the transport sector.
• This is the second financing agreement between the EIB and Eni to promote biorefining, following the July 2025 agreement to fund the conversion of Eni’s Livorno refinery.
• The project will increase the production of hydrotreated vegetable oil diesel biofuels and the sustainable aviation fuel biojet, delivering economic, environmental and social sustainability benefits.

Today the European Investment Bank (EIB) and Eni signed a 15-year loan for €500 million 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 tonnes 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 decarbonise 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 REPowerEU by expanding Europe’s biofuel production capacity.

The project follows a €500 million 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 tonnes by 2030, including over 2 million tonnes of SAF production capacity. Biofuels are currently produced at Enilive’s biorefineries in Venice and Gela, and at the St Bernard Renewables LLC 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 decarbonisation 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 decarbonisation 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 ReFuelEU 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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