Eni Hydrogen Initiatives for 2025: Key Projects, Strategies and Partnerships

Eni’s Hydrogen Pivot: From Domestic Pilots to Global Value Chains

Eni is executing a deliberate and increasingly aggressive strategy to embed hydrogen within its operations, transforming from a traditional energy major into a diversified, low-carbon powerhouse. The company’s activities since 2021 reveal a clear strategic evolution, moving from foundational domestic projects and technology exploration to the establishment of large-scale, international partnerships aimed at commercial production. This analysis examines Eni’s hydrogen journey, highlighting the critical shift from planning to execution and what it signals for the company’s ambitious 2050 carbon neutrality goal. By deconstructing its investments, partnerships, and technological bets, we can map Eni’s path toward building a global hydrogen economy.

From Foundational R&D to Commercial Scale-Up: Eni’s Hydrogen Evolution

Between 2021 and 2024, Eni’s hydrogen strategy was characterized by exploration and foundation-building, primarily centered on its domestic market in Italy and key European hubs. The company leveraged its status as Italy’s largest hydrogen producer to launch pilot projects with Enel Green Power in Gela and Taranto, backed by EU funding. It also invested in a portfolio of disruptive production technologies through its venture arm, Eni Next, including sHYp’s seawater electrolysis and Graphitic Energy’s methane pyrolysis. These early-stage ventures, along with the world-first PosHYdon offshore green hydrogen pilot, demonstrated a focus on de-risking novel technologies. The primary applications were testing production methods and establishing initial infrastructure, such as the first public refueling station in Mestre.

Beginning in 2025, a distinct inflection point emerged. Eni shifted from technology pilots to commercial-scale project execution and value chain integration. The variety of applications has sharpened, targeting industrial decarbonization and the creation of export-oriented hubs. The plan to build a circular methanol and hydrogen plant at the Sannazzaro refinery, the €500 million EIB-financed conversion of the Livorno refinery to produce biofuels with a dedicated hydrogen unit, and the development of the Yanbu green hydrogen hub in Saudi Arabia all signify this pivot. These are not small-scale tests; they are industrial projects designed to produce low-carbon commodities at scale. This transition from a broad, technology-focused exploration to targeted, large-scale commercial deployment signals that Eni believes key hydrogen production pathways are now mature enough to anchor significant capital investment, though it introduces substantial execution risk on these complex, multi-billion-dollar international projects.

Table: Eni’s Strategic Investments in Decarbonization and Hydrogen

Table: Eni’s Hydrogen and Decarbonization Partnerships

From an Italian Stronghold to Global Hydrogen Hubs

Eni’s geographic focus has expanded dramatically. Between 2021 and 2024, activities were concentrated in Europe. Italy served as the central hub for green hydrogen pilots (Gela, Taranto) and initial infrastructure (Mestre station), while the UK’s HyNet project established Eni as a key operator in Europe’s leading industrial decarbonization cluster. The PosHYdon pilot in the Netherlands represented a unique foray into offshore production. Early-stage MoUs with partners in North Africa (Sonatrach) and the Middle East (ADNOC) signaled future ambition but lacked concrete project commitments.

Since 2025, Eni’s strategy has gone global, targeting regions with strong renewable resources or strategic market access. Italy remains a core focus with industrial-scale projects at Sannazzaro and Livorno, but the most significant new activity is international. The partnership with TotalEnergies and EnBW to develop the Yanbu green hydrogen hub establishes a major foothold in Saudi Arabia, a country aiming to be a world-leading hydrogen exporter. The €24 billion, four-year investment plan for Algeria, Libya, and Egypt explicitly includes hydrogen production, transforming earlier MoUs into a funded regional strategy. The UK remains critical, evolving from CCS infrastructure to frontier technology with the H3AT fusion facility. Further, the JV with LG Chem plants a flag in the Asian market via Korea. This geographic diversification demonstrates a strategy to build a resilient, global portfolio of low-carbon energy hubs, mitigating risk and capturing growth opportunities in nascent hydrogen markets worldwide.

Accelerating from Lab to Market: Validating Hydrogen’s Commercial Viability

An analysis of the technologies pursued by Eni reveals a clear progression in maturity. The 2021-2024 period was defined by an R&D-heavy approach. Eni Next’s investments in sHYp (seawater-to-hydrogen), Thiozen (sour gas-to-hydrogen), and Graphitic Energy (methane pyrolysis) were bets on early-stage, potentially disruptive technologies still in the lab or demonstration phase. The PosHYdon project, while a world-first, was a pilot designed to prove the feasibility of offshore green hydrogen production. Even the deployment of a hydrogen refueling station in Mestre was a commercial pilot, testing a market rather than scaling a proven one. The overarching theme was technology validation and option creation.

From 2025 onwards, the focus has shifted decisively towards deploying commercially mature or near-commercial technologies at industrial scale. The conversion of the Livorno and Venice refineries to produce hydrogenated biofuels relies on established hydrotreating processes, with the key innovation being the scale and integration of dedicated hydrogen production units. The Sannazzaro circular plant will deploy NextChem’s NX-CIRCULAR™ technology, moving it from a proprietary process to the core of a major industrial facility. The Yanbu green hydrogen hub in Saudi Arabia will utilize large-scale electrolyzers, a technology that is now commercially available from multiple vendors. While Eni continues to invest in frontier tech, exemplified by the H3AT fusion project, its core capital is now flowing to projects that use proven technologies to create commercially traded low-carbon products. This shift from “can it work?” to “how do we scale it?” is a powerful signal that Eni believes the time for commercializing hydrogen-related value chains has arrived.

Table: Eni’s Strategic SWOT Analysis for Hydrogen

The Path Ahead: From Partnership to Production

The data from 2025 signals that Eni has concluded the primary phase of strategic planning and is now entering a multi-year period of intense execution. The narrative has shifted from signing MoUs to reaching financial close (Liverpool Bay CCS), starting permitting (Sannazzaro), and breaking ground on new facilities (LG Chem plant in Korea). For market actors, the key signals to watch are no longer partnership announcements but tangible project milestones. Progress toward a final investment decision on the Argentina LNG project and successful permitting for the Sannazzaro plant will be critical validation points in the coming year.

Looking ahead, we should expect a cascade of more specific project announcements stemming from the €24 billion North African investment commitment, detailing how that capital will be deployed into hydrogen, CCS, and renewables in Algeria, Libya, and Egypt. Eni’s strategy of pursuing both LNG expansion and green hydrogen development is solidifying, indicating a pragmatic view of a prolonged energy transition where natural gas serves as a bridge fuel. The focus for the next 12-24 months will be on demonstrating that its low-carbon business can move from the planning stage to revenue generation, converting ambitious global partnerships into operational, cash-flowing assets.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the main change in Eni’s hydrogen strategy since 2025?
Since 2025, Eni has shifted from domestic, technology-focused pilot projects to executing large-scale, international commercial projects. The focus is now on building global value chains for industrial decarbonization and low-carbon exports, such as the Yanbu green hydrogen hub in Saudi Arabia and the conversion of the Livorno refinery. This pivot signifies Eni’s belief that key hydrogen production technologies are now mature enough for major capital investment.

How is Eni funding its expensive energy transition projects?
Eni is financing its transition through several methods. It secures dedicated project financing, like the €500 million loan from the European Investment Bank (EIB) for its Livorno biorefinery. It also raises capital by selling significant stakes in its specialized units to partners, such as the sale of a 25% stake in its biofuel arm, Enilive, to KKR and stakes in its renewables business, Plenitude, to EIP and Ares Management Corp.

Why is Eni still investing in new fossil fuel projects, like LNG, if its goal is decarbonization?
The analysis indicates Eni is pursuing a dual strategy, viewing natural gas as a necessary “bridge fuel” for the long-term energy transition. While investing heavily in hydrogen and renewables, Eni continues to sign long-term agreements for Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG), such as deals with Venture Global and the YPF Argentina project. This pragmatic approach addresses ongoing energy demand while building out its future low-carbon businesses, though it creates what the analysis calls “strategic friction.”

Besides its home market in Italy, where are Eni’s key international focus areas for hydrogen and decarbonization?
Eni’s geographic focus has expanded globally to include several key regions. These include North Africa (Algeria, Libya, Egypt), where it has a €24 billion investment plan for renewables and hydrogen; Saudi Arabia, with the Yanbu green hydrogen hub partnership; the UK, with the HyNet CCS project and the H3AT fusion facility; and South Korea, through a joint venture with LG Chem for a biofuel plant.

What are the main applications for hydrogen in Eni’s current large-scale projects?
Eni is targeting two primary applications for hydrogen in its commercial-scale projects. The first is for industrial decarbonization, where hydrogen will be used as a clean feedstock. The second is as a critical input for producing low-carbon fuels, such as the hydrogenated biofuels (HVO/SAF) being produced at its converted Livorno and Venice refineries and through partnerships with LG Chem and PBF Energy.

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