Eni to invest €125 million at Versalis Mantua to consolidate production and expand research

Italy, Mantua, - Eni will invest €125 million in its Versalis plant in Mantua to under the Group’s 2014/17 four-year strategic plan. Versalis is an environmentally and economically sustainable plant which links the industrial areas in Porto Marghera, Ferrara and Ravenna via a pipeline. The planned investment will be used to optimise the plants industrial processes and produce further energy savings. Funds will also be used to expand the Group’s research and development into innovative products and technologies.

A meeting took place today at the plant in Via Taliercio to underline the central importance of the Versalis plant, in addition to confirming the strong business opportunities related to the production of intermediates and styrenes, for which Versalis is the third largest producer in Europe. Attendees of the meeting included the Councillor for Environmental Sustainability and Land Planning for the Province of Mantua, Alberto Grandi; Eni’s Head of Relations for Local Organisations and Institutions, Francesco Manna; and the Plant Manager, Massimo Gialli.

Versalis develops a range of innovative products in Mantua, including Extir® CM Galileo, the ultra-lightweight expandable polystyrene. This is a sustainable energy product which is widely used across Europe for thermal insulation systems that help to reduce energy consumption and CO2 emissions.
962 people work at Versalis in Mantua. In addition, 155 people, more than a third of which are graduates, have been hired over the past four years due to the significant expansion of the research structure.

The Claudio Buonerba Research Centre is a centre of excellence for basic chemistry and plastics, employing 200 researchers, technologists and process engineers. It is the largest of Versalis’ research centres, covering an area of 15 thousand square metres with ten laboratories and five pilot plants, and is the only centre working across all lines of the business.