“We would like Italy to return to being our first EU partner”. To say it is the Iranian president Hassan Rouhani at the end of the meeting with the Prime Minister Matthew Renzi, who arrived in Iran today for a two-day visit: “Italy has always had a special position for the Iranian people, just as Italian industry and companies have always found a great welcome. Italy is an old and precious friend even in times of difficulty, such as during the sanctions, when the Italian positions were the most equitable”.
A confirmation, if needed, of the excellent political and industrial relations between the two countries, in which Eni plays the role of fundamental access key, and of the speed with which Italy has organized these meetings: Prime Minister Matteo Renzi, who he reciprocated Rouhani's visit last January, he is the first EU leader to visit Iran since the end of the sanctions.
Political openness to a changing reality such as Iran is, clearly, also an economic openness, which has led to the signing of as many as six agreements between the two parties. In fact, Iran wants to return to exporting oil but to do so it needs to modernize the extraction sites, and Italy could provide the technology and the credit to do so. But not only oil is being discussed in this mission which sees Renzi accompanied by a high-profile delegation, not only institutional (ministers Giannini and undersecretary Scalfarotto) but above all entrepreneurial (Descalzi for Eni, Cao for Saipem, Nagel for Mediobanca, Mazzoncini for Fs, Castellano for Sace).
state Railways
The most important of these contracts is the one signed between the FS and the Iranian railways on the subject of high speed. The agreement, which was signed by the CEO of Ferrovie dello Stato Renato Mazzoncini, has a value of 3,5 billion euros.
CDP and Sace
But the attention of Renzi and his delegation was also directed, as mentioned, to the importance "of investing in credit lines, in banks and in financial aspects: on these issues there is a need to do more by banking institutions and the Italian authorities. Italy is strongly committed in this direction”.
A clear commitment, achieved thanks to the intervention of Sace, in the presence of CEO Alessandro Castellano, and of Cdp, which has disbursed 4 billion euros of credit lines as part of the "export bank" system to Iranian sovereign counterparties, to support important projects in the infrastructure, oil & gas and transport sectors, commissioned from large Italian companies and with the involvement of a large number of supplier SMEs.
The credit lines were guaranteed by SACE, with the intervention of SIMEST for the stabilization of the interest rate, Sace which also invested a further 800 million euros to encourage the recovery of the activities of Italian SMEs in the country, a few weeks from signing of the agreement for the recovery of the sovereign credit (equal to 564 million euros) claimed by SACE from the Central Bank of Iran against the indemnities paid to Italian companies.
Eni
At the moment, Eni's position is prudent: "In a moment like this of low prices - commented the CEO of the Italian energy giant Claudio Descalzi - a lot of caution is needed. The prospects only come if there are long-term contractual conditions to be able to do things, for the moment there is nothing”.
“We are waiting – continued Descalzi – to understand what the new contracts and new opportunities are. At the moment, investing in oil and gas must be done with great care and the countries that offer the best contracts must be selected, so we are still waiting, we are here precisely to discuss what the opportunities may be at ministerial and president level".
The primary need for production is to develop new fields. A necessity for which, however, for Descalzi, "we need to recover 10 years of sanctions, which means maintenance of the fields, new technologies, upgrading, therefore updating of technologies". A job that, given the low price of oil, could take some time.
