Eni will ask to the Court of Review to reassess the seizure order relating to the Oil Centre of Viggiano

San Donato Milanese (MI), 5 April 2016 – Eni, beyond the independent checks carried out by national and international experts, has decided to request at the Court of Review a reassessment of the seizure order. This is in Eni’s primary interest to clarify that all activities are conducted in respect of the environment and law.

Furthermore, in order to judge the technical aspects on which there are distorted and controversial claims, Eni intends to request an adversarial proceeding, based on the collection of evidence, into the accuracy of the operational modes of the plant and in particular, the reinjected waters which were not deemed to be dangerous.

As soon as it became aware of the investigations into criminal proceedings involving the activities of the Centre, Eni, independently of the regular and continuous reviews that the Val d’Agri Oil Centre conducts under the full compliance of regulatory requirements and authorizations, began a series of additional and independent investigations to demonstrate its level of commitment to the investigation and provide an objective framework of the current state of all  the profiles  involved in the industrial activity.

In addition to these investigations, a thorough analysis of all the technologies in use at the Viggiano Oil Centre were undertaken to guarantee their compliance with the Best Available Technologies and establish whether the operations conformed with international best practices. These last tests were conducted by the ENVIRON society.

The studies were commissioned to experts of acclaimed professional experience and authority in the scientific field at national and international level.

Finally, in order to obtain an accurate picture of the environmental and health situation related to the activities of the Oil Centre, the investigations carried out are based on objective data resulting from in-depth field surveys conducted by SGS. 

The keys with which to access an Internet portal receiving real time results of the inquiries have been deposited at the Potenza’s Attorney Office. These results would include:

• monitoring and analysis of the water quality for 75 days, 24hrs a day;
• monitoring and analysis of the emission levels of the Oil Centre for 30 days;
• monitoring and analysis of the air quality recorded by the control units in areas outside the Oil Centre for 28 days, in both winter and summer conditions. This monitoring involves the use of independent control units in respect of the existing ARPAB.

None of the surveys outlined above involved any members of Eni’s staff, in order to ensure their independence and autonomy.

The results of the expert reports related to the current issues of major interest are:

• the water reinjection was not deemed dangerous, either from a waste legislation standpoint or from the substantive legal one;
• the reinjection activity carried out at the Oil Centre is compliant with Italian law and its current authorizations. It also complies with the best international practices;
• the reinjection activity is best practice from an environmental point of view. Based on their characteristics, the most suitable environmental compartment to receive them is indeed the referred field;
• the state of the environmental quality, which is studied and monitored in all the Oil Centre’s surrounding matrices, is deemed excellent according to the current regulatory standards.

Eni has also checked the health impacts of the Oil Centre of Viggiano upon the health of its own staff members who have been working at the plants and the outcome of the analysis of eventual health impact over the most exposed sample is very reassuring.