Fincantieri, Eni Forge Natural Gas Cooperation

The CEOs of Italian shipbuilding major Fincantieri and its compatriot oil and gas company Eni, Giuseppe Bono and Claudio Descalzi, have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on research & development in the field of energy systems, with particular focus on the natural gas transport chain.

The duo said that the agreement provides framework to study projects for sustainable development and support of the use of gas in transport.

Under the umbrella of the MoU, the two companies could form partnerships ranging from the liquefied natural gas (LNG) chain, natural gas transport chain, exploitation of gas resources, to floating platform projects for offshore production and the evaluation of energy projects with a low environmental impact.

“Within the agreement signed today, Fincantieri will be able to leverage on its expertise and technologies in order to collaborate with Eni both in Italy and abroad,” the shipbuilder said.

The MoU with Eni comes two weeks after the shipbuilder inked a share purchase agreement for the acquisition of 66.66% of the share capital of STX France from its current shareholder, STX Europe AS.

The deal is priced at EUR 79.5 million (USD 88.5 million), to be paid through available financial resources, Fincantieri said.

For the first quarter of this year the shipbuilder reported a EUR 1.104 billion in revenue and income against EUR 1.048 billion (approximately USD 1.19 billion) a year earlier, up 5.3% compared to the same period of 2016.

The shipbuilder’s total backlog came at EUR 26.6 billion, covering approximately 6 years of work if compared to 2016 revenues.

Since the start of the year, Fincantieri secured contracts for a total of 19 cruise ships, including options.

Trieste-headquartered shipbuilding group specializes in cruise ship design and construction, in addition to building ferries and mega-yachts, but also provides services to other high-tech shipbuilding industry’s sectors, including naval and offshore.