Claudio Descalzi

Claudio Descalzi is an Italian businessman, and the CEO of Italian oil company Eni since May 2014.

Career :

Descalzi started to work at Eni in 1981, when he joined the multinational company operating in the production and distribution of energy as a reservoir engineer, then he became Project Manager for the activities in North Sea, Libya, Nigeria and Congo.

In 1990, Descalzi was appointed Head of Reservoir and operating activities for Eni Italy, a position which led him to develop a new model and to increase production to 250,000 barrels per day. From 1994 to 1998 He was Managing Director of Eni’s subsidiary in Congo, starting in 1997 the production in the Kitina offshore. In 1998 he became Vice President and Managing Director of NAOC: during this period He started the export of gas produced at the NLNG liquefaction plant and the development of deep-water offshore local projects.

Descalzi was appointed Executive Vice President for Eni Africa, Eni Middle East and Eni China in 2000 and he defined, launched and oversaw the start-up of the Eni Western Libyan, intended to increase the production of barrels per day in Libya from 85,000 to 280,000. From 2002 to 2005 he worked as Executive Vice President for Eni Italy, Eni Africa and Eni Middle East, covering at the same time the role of member of the board of several Eni subsidiaries. In 2005 he was appointed Deputy Chief Operating Officer of the Exploration & Production Division in Eni, a role he held until 2008.

Descalzi became in 2008 Chief Operating Officer of the Exploration & Production Division in Eni, giving his contribution to the definition of the strategic plan of upstream activities in Italy and abroad and starting important projects such as Goliat in Norway (2009), West Hub in Angola (2011) and campaign of exploration in Mozambique (2013). In 2014 he was appointed Chief Executive Officer of Eni. 

During his first mandate (2014-2017), Eni's financial statements reported net profits of 3.37 billion euros for the year 2017. In 2016, he launched Progetto Italia, a program aimed at producing zero-emission energy. Under his leadership, Eni opened two photovoltaic plants in Assemini and Porto Torres, both located in Sardinia, the former in August 2018 and the latter in February 2020.

On March 18, 2017, Descalzi was confirmed as the managing director for a second term. In May of the same year, he announced the allocation of 21 billion euros in Italy for the next four years, with the objective of relaunching various sectors of the company. Since May 2018, Eni has been participating in the magnetic confinement fusion project of MIT and CFS. In September of the same year, Descalzi inaugurated the Gela biorefinery, an innovative plant designed for the production of biofuels. In November, Eni opened its first solar power plant in Pakistan. 

On April 20, 2020, Descalzi was confirmed in his position for the third consecutive time. On February 19, 2021, he announced Eni's commitment to achieving the decarbonization of all Company's products and processes by 2050. 

In September 2022, he met with Saudi Arabia’s Minister of Investment Khalid A. Al-Falih and signed an agreement aimed at promoting cooperation between Eni and Saudi Arabia. 

On April 12, 2023, Claudio Descalzi was confirmed by the Meloni government as head of Eni for the fourth consecutive term, a record in the history of the six-legged dog company.