Eni CCUS De-Risking, €1 B GIP Stake Sale, £2.5 B Liverpool Bay Project, and 2 Key Agreements (2025)

Eni’s Shift From CCUS Planning to Commercial Execution

In 2025, Italian energy major Eni fundamentally shifted its carbon capture, utilization, and storage (CCUS) model from a long-term development strategy to an investable, execution-focused business, a direct contrast to the 2021-2024 period of project planning and feasibility studies. This was achieved by creating a dedicated, separately capitalized business unit and securing a cornerstone financial partner. The move enables Eni to accelerate the deployment of large-scale decarbonization infrastructure by de-risking the significant capital expenditure required and validating the commercial viability of its storage assets.

Eni’s Strategic Partnership with GIP

The pivotal event was the finalization of a partnership with Black Rock’s Global Infrastructure Partners (GIP), which acquired a 49.99% stake in Eni CCUS Holding. This transaction valued the new entity at approximately €1 billion ($1.2 billion) and established a joint control structure. This approach represents a strategic change from the prior period, where Eni carried the full development risk on its own balance sheet. By bringing in a specialized infrastructure investor, Eni not only secured immediate capital but also gained a partner with financial expertise to expedite the development of its entire CCUS project pipeline, starting with its flagship hubs in the UK and Italy.

Liverpool Bay Project Activation

The GIP partnership directly enabled the most significant project milestone of 2025: reaching financial close for the Liverpool Bay CCS project in the UK. As the transport and storage operator for the Hy Net industrial decarbonization cluster, Eni moved the project from the planning stage into construction. This contrasts with the 2021-2024 period, which was characterized by securing licenses and government negotiations. The financial close in April 2025 unlocked the project, which aims to store an initial 4.5 million tonnes of CO₂ per year, and triggered the award of a major construction contract to Saipem.

Ravenna Hub Advancement

The new financial structure extends beyond the UK, providing a clear path forward for Italy’s Ravenna CCS project. The agreement with GIP includes rights for the infrastructure fund to also acquire a 50% stake in the Ravenna venture, co-developed with Snam. This demonstrates a repeatable, satellite-based model for financing capital-intensive decarbonization projects. While the UK project is now in execution, the GIP partnership provides the framework to advance the Ravenna hub toward a final investment decision, positioning it as a key asset for decarbonizing industrial emitters in Southern Europe.

Carbon Capture Market to Skyrocket 6x by 2035
The Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) market is set for explosive growth, projected to surge from $8.92 billion in 2025 to $54.73 billion by 2035—a nearly six-fold expansion. This trajectory highlights an accelerating global commitment to industrial decarbonization.

(Source: Precedence Research — via Carbon Capture and Sequestration Market Size | CAGR of 16.6%)

$1.2 B Valuation Signals Eni’s CCUS Bankability

The €1 billion (approximately $1.2 billion) valuation of Eni’s CCUS business by Global Infrastructure Partners (GIP) in 2025 served as a powerful market signal, validating the commercial potential of its portfolio of depleted gas fields repurposed for CO₂ storage. This external valuation provides a bankable framework and the necessary capital to move large-scale projects from concept to reality, a critical step that was absent in the prior 2021-2024 development phase. The strategy allows Eni to pursue an aggressive growth plan for its low-carbon service business without relying solely on its own balance sheet.

The Black Rock/GIP Capital Injection

The transaction with GIP, which is part of Black Rock, establishes a co-control structure where both parties steer the new CCUS entity. This differs from a simple asset sale, as it ensures Eni retains strategic and operational control over the projects while leveraging GIP’s financial acumen. This model is central to CEO Claudio Descalzi’s strategy of creating independent “satellite” companies for new energy ventures, allowing them to attract specialized investors and grow faster than they would as a fully integrated part of the parent company.

A Broader Energy Transition Portfolio

While the GIP deal was the centerpiece of its CCUS strategy, Eni’s 2025 investments reveal a diversified approach to the energy transition. The company’s Enilive unit secured a €500 million loan from the European Investment Bank to build a new 500, 000-tonne-per-year biorefinery in Livorno, Italy. In a more forward-looking move, Eni also signed a power offtake agreement worth over $1 billion with Commonwealth Fusion Systems (CFS), securing a significant volume of clean electricity from CFS’s first planned fusion power plant. These investments show that CCUS is one component of a broader strategy that also includes next-generation fuels and power sources.

Table: Eni Strategic Investments and Project Financing (2025)

Carbon Capture (CCS) Trails in Clean Energy Investment Growth
Global clean energy investments exceeded $500 billion by 2020, predominantly driven by renewable energy and electrified transport. Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS), however, constitutes a negligible portion of this investment, highlighting its minimal capital allocation compared to other decarbonization technologies.

(Source: Carbon Capture And Storage Market Size to Hit USD 54.73 Bn by 2035)

UK and Italy: Eni’s Dual-Hub Strategy for European CCUS

In 2025, Eni sharpened its geographic focus on two strategic European CCUS hubs, the United Kingdom and Italy, committing capital and partnerships to execute large-scale projects in these core markets. This marks a shift from the 2021-2024 period, which involved securing licenses and evaluating opportunities across a wider range of locations. By concentrating its efforts, Eni is building a first-mover advantage to provide cross-border carbon management services for industrial clusters in Northwest and Southern Europe.

United Kingdom as the Primary Execution Hub

The UK emerged as Eni’s primary theater for CCUS execution in 2025. The financial close of the Liverpool Bay CCS project solidified its role as the operator of the transport and storage infrastructure for the Hy Net cluster. This project will serve industrial emitters in Northwest England and North Wales, with an initial storage capacity of 4.5 million tonnes of CO₂ per year, designed to scale to 10 million tonnes after 2030. This progress establishes Eni as a key partner in one of the UK’s leading industrial decarbonization initiatives, competing with other major operators in the North Sea like BP and Shell.

Italy’s Ravenna as a Southern European Gateway

Concurrently, Eni advanced Italy’s flagship Ravenna CCS project as a strategic hub for the Mediterranean region. Leveraging depleted gas fields in the Adriatic Sea, the project is being developed with partner Snam. The GIP partnership provides a clear financing model for Ravenna, which is critical for decarbonizing Italy’s hard-to-abate industries, such as cement and steel manufacturing in the Po Valley. While still in an earlier phase than Liverpool Bay, the Ravenna hub is positioned as a cornerstone of Italy’s national decarbonization strategy.

SWOT Analysis: Eni’s CCUS Financial De-Risking and Market Position

This analysis reveals how Eni’s 2025 strategy successfully mitigated a core financial weakness through a key partnership, allowing it to capitalize on its operational strengths and seize a first-mover opportunity. The GIP partnership directly addressed the high capital expenditure burden of CCUS, converting a potential liability into a bankable, co-controlled venture. However, the business remains exposed to external threats related to nascent market structures and competition from other energy majors like Exxon Mobil and Total Energies.

Table: SWOT Analysis for Eni’s CCUS Strategy (2025)

Scenario Modelling: Will Eni’s GIP Model Accelerate a Second Hub?

The most critical strategic development to monitor for Eni is whether it can successfully replicate the UK’s financing and execution model at its second flagship hub, the Ravenna CCS project in Italy. The success of this replication will determine if Eni’s satellite-company strategy is a one-off success or a scalable template for its global energy transition ambitions.

• If this happens: Eni announces that Global Infrastructure Partners (GIP) has exercised its option to acquire a significant stake in the Ravenna project, followed by a Final Investment Decision (FID) for the project’s first phase.
• Watch this: Public announcements of binding, long-term commercial agreements between Eni and industrial emitters in the Po Valley. These contracts are the primary prerequisite for securing project financing and reaching FID.
• These could be happening: Eni is likely leveraging the successful Liverpool Bay financial close as a blueprint in negotiations with both industrial partners and potential lenders for Ravenna. The company is likely engaged in advanced discussions to secure anchor customers for the storage facility to de-risk demand ahead of a final investment decision.

The questions your competitors are already asking

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• ExxonMobil carbon capture partnerships
• Eni Ravenna carbon capture project timeline
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• UK government carbon capture contracts

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