EIB, Eni sign €500m in financing for Sannazzaro de’ Burgondi biorefinery conversion
Global energy technology company Eni said it has signed a 15-year loan agreement for €500m with European Investment Bank (EIB) to convert its Sannazzaro de’ Burgondi refinery into a biorefinery.
The agreement was signed by EIB vice-president Gelsomina Vigliotti and Eni CEO Claudio Descalzi.
“This financing represents strategic support for a project with high environmental and industrial value, contributing to the decarbonisation of the transport sector, particularly aviation,” said Vigliotti.
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.
The plant will have a production capacity of around 550 000 tonnes per year and produce diesel biofuels and sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) from 2028.
Building on existing infrastructure, the project will complement conventional fuel production with HVO diesel biofuels and SAF.
“This new agreement with the EIB demonstrates the effectiveness and robustness of the strategy we pursue through our businesses related to the energy transition,” said Descalzi. “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.”
The project follows a €500m financing agreement signed in July 2025 to convert Eni’s Livorno refinery into a biorefinery.
The conversion of Sannazzaro de’ Burgondi refinery is part of Enilive’s strategic objective to increase biofuel production capacity to 5m tonnes by 2030, including over 2m tonnes of SAF production capacity.
Eni currently produces biofuels at biorefineries in Venice and Gela, and at the St Bernard Renewables 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.