London: Italian energy company Eni SpA may develop renewables in Algeria.
The Rome-based company said in a statement on its website that its Chief Executive Officer Claudio Descalzi offered to build clean energy in the country during a meeting with the Algerian Prime Minister Abdelmalek Sellal along with the energy minister and head of Sonatrach Group, the state-owned oil and gas company.
Eni has invested in renewables since 2007, mostly in research for the solar and biofuels industries such as the development of efficient solar polymer cells. It is also converting an oil refinery into a biorefinery in Venice, Italy.
The company was part of the group of European oil and gas companies that united in June in a call for governments to implement a carbon price at the United Nations climate change conference in Paris, along with Royal Dutch Shell Plc, BP Plc and Total SA. Their counterparts in the US have said they will back an agreement to curb global warming.
Eni was the first foreign oil company in Algeria, working in the country since 1981. It produces about 100,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day.
