Italian energy firm Eni is exploring the possibility of restarting oil and gas trading operations that it discontinued in 2019, according to comments from Chief Executive Claudio Descalzi.
Descalzi told the Financial Times that other major energy companies have continued trading and reaped significant profits during episodes of price swings driven by geopolitical events. "BP, Shell, Total are big traders and they make billions from that," he said, pointing to the experience of those rivals as a key factor behind Eni’s review.
The CEO said he has opened early-stage conversations with several commodity trading houses about creating a joint venture to manage trading activities. Among the firms mentioned in those preliminary discussions is Mercuria. Descalzi characterized these talks as the initial steps in evaluating whether a partnership model would enable Eni to re-enter the trading business without relying solely on in-house commercial capabilities.
Descalzi was explicit about Eni’s internal limitations in this area, stating, "It is not in our DNA. We are not very commercial. So I thought to become commercial, we have to have a partnership to understand the business." That admission frames the company’s inclination toward working with established traders rather than attempting to rebuild a proprietary trading desk from scratch.
Should Eni proceed, the CEO said any new trading entity would be structured to operate independently from the company’s main upstream and downstream operations. The proposed separation suggests an intent to ring-fence trading activities from Eni’s core oil and gas business lines, though details on governance, capital allocation and scope of trading have not been provided.
The discussions are at a preliminary stage and no formal agreement has been announced. Descalzi’s statements indicate Eni is assessing the commercial merits of returning to the market while relying on external trading expertise to bridge its admitted capability gap.
Summary
Eni is considering re-establishing an oil and gas trading operation it exited in 2019. CEO Claudio Descalzi cited peers’ trading profits during volatile, geopolitically driven price periods as motivation and has held initial talks with commodity companies, including Mercuria, about a potential joint venture. Any trading arm would be set up to operate independently from Eni’s primary business.