The European Investment Bank (EIB) has signed a EUR 300 million finance contract with Eni for the benefit of Snam Rete Gas, a company listed on the Milan stock exchange and 52.54%-owned by Eni. The EIB loan will cover nearly 50% of Snam Rete Gas’s investment cost in constructing two new gas pipelines: one in Puglia between Massafra and Biccari; the other in Lombardy between Cremona and Sergnano. It will also serve to finance the transformation and upgrading of a compressor station in Melizzano, Campania.

The schemes financed by the EIB loan will boost the capacity and safety of supply of Italy’s gas pipeline network to meet growing demand for gas and provide greater operational flexibility – priority objectives of EIB financing. Additionally, the two projects in Campania and Puglia are located in so-called convergence regions, bringing them under another pillar of the EIB’s financing policy in the EU.

This operation further cements the EIB’s thirty-year relationship with ENI.