Eni and Snam’s planned expansion of the Ravenna carbon capture and storage project in Italy’s Adriatic Sea has been selected for European Commission funding, Splash 247 reported. The second phase was chosen among large-scale developments under the EU’s 2025 Innovation Fund call for net-zero technologies. The partners have been invited to prepare a grant agreement, but no funding amount has been disclosed.
Phase 2 is intended to increase annual CO2 injection capacity to 4m tonnes by 2030, with later stages potentially taking that figure to 16m tonnes. According to the report, Eni and Snam estimate that the depleted offshore gas reservoirs could accommodate around 500m tonnes. The planned transport network would serve industrial emitters in Italy and other European countries, accepting CO2 delivered by pipeline, vessel, rail and road.
Responsibility for developing and operating the offshore storage facilities, compression station and multimodal reception terminal would sit with the Eni-Snam joint venture. Snam would undertake the onshore pipeline development separately, linking Ravenna, Casalborsetti and Ferrara. Ravenna is also included in Callisto, the broader cross-border initiative for carbon transport and storage.
The expansion follows an initial phase that started in 2024 and captures about 25,000 tonnes of CO2 a year at Eni’s Casalborsetti gas treatment plant. Existing pipelines converted for the task carry the CO2 to the Porto Corsini Mare Ovest offshore platform. From there, it is injected into a depleted reservoir approximately 3,000 metres beneath the seabed.
Splash 247 placed the Ravenna selection alongside a separate €223m EU funding award for Aker BP and Höegh Evi’s Atlas carbon storage project in the North Sea. Atlas would use dedicated carriers to move captured CO2 from European industrial hubs for injection into a saline aquifer more than 2,000 metres below the seabed. Its initial planned capacity is 6m tonnes annually, with scope to exceed 10m tonnes. The partners aim to make a final investment decision in 2028 and begin injection in 2031; the funding award is conditional on that investment decision.