Italian companies Eni and Total announce a licensing agreement for the right to use EST technology. Eni Slurry Technology, a technology developed entirely in Italy by Eni research, will be adapted to Total's production needs.
This is the most innovative and advanced refining process currently existing to convert heavy products into lighter components and has been used industrially in the Sannazzaro refinery since 2013.
On the sidelines of the agreement, Giacomo Rispoli, Eni Refining&Marketing and Chemical Executive Vice President Portfolio Management & Supply and Licensing, comments: “After two years of successful testing of the EST plant in Sannazzaro, a new and consolidated technology on an industrial scale is now commercially available. EST technology arrives more than 40 years after the latest processes developed and is the result of 15 years of work in our research”.
“One of the main challenges in the refining industry is to keep pace in line with oil market trends, within a sustainable economic model, especially when these changes are dictated by legislation and new fuel specifications“ – adds Nathalie Brunelle, Senior Vice President Strategy Development and Research of Total Refining and Chemical – “this cooperation project with Eni is a way for Total to raise its level of technological knowledge and experience and to have access to a new and consolidated technology of bottom-of-the-barrel conversion”
