The world economic and energy scenario of the past few years, combined with tough competition from new players of emerging countries, poses growing challenges to the oil&gas industry – from accessing new energy resources to maximising the oil recovery factor, from reducing mining risks to ensuring safety and mitigation of the impact of operating activities, from the production to the upgrading of unconventional resources, just to mention a few of them.
Eni believes that the answer to these challenges cannot be separated from a strong, continuous commitment to technological innovation that creates and provides long term competitive advantages.
For this reason, in 2006 Eni launched a new path for its technological innovation strategy, bringing research closer to the operating activities, opening new frontiers, in particular in the field of renewable energy, and establishing relationships with top research centres in Italy and abroad. This new path has allowed us to reach important results, as already seen in 2007-2008. The success has further evolved over the next two years, with the most brilliant laboratory results turning into field applications. Last year, a new operating approach to technological research has been launched, based on a direct relationship and reciprocal exchange between research and business, strongly oriented to value creation and the reduction of time-to-market for new scientific discoveries. The Technology Report 2009-2010 presents the most interesting results carried out by Eni R&D activities over the past two years.
We are aware that the results obtained to date are not yet the final solution to the challenges to our industry, but we are confident that the path they define is essential to keep on operating successfully in the long term.

Paolo Scaroni, CEO

Technological innovation is a crucial element for eni, enabling the access to new energy resources, improving their recovery and utilization efficiency, while reducing the impact on the environment.
In 2010 the total expenditure on research and technological development amounted to 268 million euros; in the next four years we plan to invest about 1.1 billion euros.
The research and development activities are divided into 45 thematic programs.
The main effort is in the upstream, with activities aimed at improving the exploration and at developing new technologies to find oil and gas in Arctic areas, in oceans beyond 2,000 meters deep, in difficult geological conditions, for example, under layers of salt. By integrating different methodologies it is possible to obtain detailed and accurate subsurface pictures and to reconstruct the evolution of the Earth's crust, to assess whether the geological conditions were favorable to the formation of hydrocarbon deposits. To recover the most of underground oil and gas, it is necessary to optimize drilling and develop enhanced oil recovery, injecting fluids or carbon dioxide into the well to displace the oil and facilitate its production.
Regarding the unconventional resources, besides superheavy oils (i.e. so viscous to be almost solid) and tar sands (which cannot be extracted by conventional production techniques), the new commitment is on shale gas. This resource has been heavily exploited in the United States in the past 10 years, so now eni plans to develop production technologies also in Europe, assuring minimum environmental impact.
In the refining sector, the main projects aim to develop advanced fuels allowing greater engine efficiency and reducing harmful emissions. In this area, eni has always been at the forefront, anticipating national and European regulations about fuel quality. Other projects aim to improve the conversion of heavy crudes, particularly through the use of proprietary EST - Eni Slurry Technology - which offers proved technical advantages, completely converting the feedstock in light distillates (naphtha and diesel) and eliminating by-products, as fuel oil and pet-coke.
We also intend to contribute to a sustainable growth of the energy business, developing technology solutions that promote the use of renewable energy sources: eni's commitment is focused in particular on solar energy and biomass.
In the solar field, according to the first results of activities undertaken in 2007, we developed original photoactive materials usable for transparent polymer sheets, that act as converters and concentrators of the solar spectrum and allow a significant increased efficiency of conventional photovoltaic cells placed at the edges of the sheets. These devices open up great prospects for advanced low-cost PV integrated in buildings; we are now committed to making the technology available within the next three years.
Eni's further objective is the development of processes for biofuel production, economically and environmentally sustainable, in line with European directives, using as raw material organic waste and biomass whose cultivation does not interfere with the food production.
We are also committed to developing technologies for carbon dioxide capture, transportation and underground reinjection in order to mitigate the adverse effects on climate due to its release into the atmosphere. Finally, we have R&D activities concerning the development of new efficient and minimally invasive technologies for environmental remediation.
The ability to innovate is evidenced from the large eni's patent portfolio, which now includes approximately 8000 patents to protect a thousand inventions.
In 2010, we filed 88 new patent applications, 61 from R&D results on core business issues and renewables, 10 about petrochemistry and 17 concerning engineering aspects namely by Saipem. In particular, we have filed 22 new patent applications on renewables, related to the development of fuels derived from biomass and solar energy technologies.
The external collaborations are an integral part of eni's strategy for technological innovation and represent a source of strength. Collaboration with academic and research excellence allows us to integrate the technical and scientific skills of the company and to face the great challenges of the energy industry with multi-disciplinary approach and clear targets, identifying totally original and innovative solutions.
This road started in 2008 through agreements with universities and research centers in Italy (Polytechnics of Milan and Turin, the National Research Council - CNR) and abroad with MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA). The alliance with MIT include the MITEI program (MIT Energy Initiative) and the realization of the Solar Frontiers Center, a shared Eni-MIT laboratory entirely dedicated to the development of new solar energy technologies. A new strategic alliance with Stanford University (USA) was signed in 2011 for research and innovation on two main areas: hydrocarbon exploration and reservoir simulation, site characterization and environmental protection.
The continuous comparison with laboratories and R&D centers involved on the cutting edge of technology is then necessary to ensure the quality of our research. We intend to forge even stronger ties with the institutions and experts we already collaborate with and to further enhance the extraordinary wealth of knowledge and skills accessible through eni Award, the prestigious annual prize which encourages a better use of energy sources, promote environmental research and create opportunities for new generations of researchers.

Salvatore Meli, Executive Vice President of Research & Technological Innovation