The pandemic has accelerated the energy sector transformation

Eni CEO Claudio Descalzi spoke to Energy Connects on a wide range of issues – from the energy giant’s strategic partnership with ADNOC, to other exploration opportunities across the MENA region, acceleration of upstream activities post-Covid and initiatives to ensure the company remains a leader in energy transition.

What are your views on Eni’s strategic role in accelerating the development of Abu Dhabi’s hydrocarbon resources? 

Our strategic partnership with ADNOC is based on applying innovative technologies to develop the substantial resources in an advanced market like Abu Dhabi. Together we are facing the key challenge of increasing efficiency while reducing our carbon footprint. The combination of Eni’s technological expertise and ADNOC’s determination in accelerating for additional resources and their experience in the region, represents a crucial enabler to achieve our results, now even more in the current energy transition paradigm.

Following the exploration award for the Abu Dhabi Offshore Block 3 last year, what are the other oil and gas exploration opportunities that you are looking across the MENA region?

We are very active in the region. Aside from Abu Dhabi we are present in Sharjah, Oman and Bahrain as well as in North Africa where we have a leading presence in Egypt, Libya, and Algeria. We are focusing our exploration efforts on near-field opportunities in areas with existing infrastructures that may deliver extra value by being more effective in terms of time to market and carbon footprint reduction.

What can we expect from Eni at ADIPEC 2021? What are you particularly looking forward to this year?

This year, ADIPEC will be a very important event for all stakeholders, we will have the opportunity to meet again in person after the pandemic that strongly affected our industry. As for Eni, we will be present at a prime location at ADIPEC. I look forward to a productive dialogue on the acceleration of upstream activities post-Covid and to our initiatives on the transition and the future of energy.

How has your company adapted to new market dynamics and changing energy demands during the pandemic era?

The pandemic has certainly acted as an accelerator in the transformation of the energy sector. For us this transformation process had already begun some years ago. In the last seven years we have drastically changed and diversified our businesses. We changed our mission, and we strengthened our focus on technology investing $5 billion in R&D and innovative technologies deployment in the last six years.

During the pandemic we increased our commitment to deliver fully decarbonised products to our customers by 2050 with a clear a strategy and a solid business plan.

What are the challenges and opportunities brought by the global energy transition, and what is your strategy within this evolving energy mix?

We all agree that a change of pace in evolving the energy mix is essential. Our new mission, inspired by the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), demonstrates the journey the company has undertaken to address the energy sector’s so-called dual challenge: to ensure access to efficient, reliable and sustainable energy for all, while reducing climate-changing emissions in line with the objectives of the Paris Agreement. Moreover, to be a leader in the energy transition, last year we changed our organisational structure. The company in fact has created two new business groups: Natural Resources, to develop the upstream oil & gas portfolio sustainably, promoting energy efficiency and carbon capture; Energy Evolution, dedicated to supporting the evolution of the company’s product transformation and marketing from fossil to bio, blue and green.

Finally, in February we presented our new strategy that has further strengthened the path that will lead Eni to carbon neutrality by 2050. In this journey, our approach must be pragmatic. Access to energy is still a crucial issue for developing countries, traditional sources are still the engine of global economic and industrial growth, the basis of development and employment balances in large areas of the planet. At the same time, we need to foster as quickly as possible the use, development and improvement of all decarbonised energy sources, from renewables to those linked to the circular economy, making them economically sustainable and able to gradually substitute fossils fuels. This is why we believe that energy transition is above all a technological transition and only companies with a strong industrial and innovative capability will lead this transformation.

As a regular participant at ADIPEC, how do you think the forum has served the global energy industry? 

ADIPEC is one of the most important forums for the energy industry, where government officials, national and international energy companies and contractors are engaging in discussing the challenges of the energy sector.

Descalzi will be speaking at the ADIPEC 2021 Strategic Conference at 1:30pm in the ICC Hall, ADNEC, Abu Dhabi on 15 November. The session will focus on the energy of the future: how are oil and gas companies evolving?

View the complete Strategic Conference programme: https://www.adipec.com/conferences/strategic-conference/