A-Infos (en) Italy, Sicilia Libertaria #460: Eni and the Region's fairy tales about Versalis (ca, de, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]

Reading the documents and analyzing Eni's communication makes it seem 
like we're living in the best of all possible worlds. It's certainly not 
a new intuition, but we're always astonished by the stubborn obtuseness 
of the most important and influential energy company in Italy. Never a 
hesitation, never an admission of responsibility, just a relentless 
propaganda about the fact that everything is always fine - for 
shareholders, at most, certainly not for people and the planet. Even 
worse when this narrative is supported uncritically by the institutions, 
always happy to wag their tails at the feet of the six-legged dog. The 
latest proof in this sense is what Eni calls the "reconversion" of 
Versalis, the branch of the company that deals with petrochemicals.

In the previous issues of Sicilia Libertaria we have already dealt with 
the risks associated with the Sicilian sites of Ragusa and Priolo. And 
here it's time to update the situation, because there's some news. To do 
so, we will start from the official answers provided by Eni during the 
annual shareholders meeting, which was held on May 14, and by the 
regional government during the parliamentary hearing held on May 21. To 
help the reader understand something, given that Eni and the State use 
the same language made up of random English words and alleged technical 
terms with the sole purpose of confusing their listeners, we will 
accompany their version "in quotation marks" with our translation in 
italics.

For Eni, "the Versalis site in Priolo is on the path to building new 
biorefineries in Italy: it too is destined for Saf, with a target of 
construction and mechanical completion by the end of 2028" (another 
biorefinery will be built in Priolo, as in Gela in 2019, where 
"biofuels" for airplanes will be produced, which have very little bio in 
them, because they are mainly made up of frying oils from China, 
notoriously of very poor quality, and castor oil which is produced by 
exploiting African farmers). On Ragusa, Eni assures that "after the 
production shutdown, it began decommissioning operations as per the 
plan; the transformation of the site according to the Protocol signed at 
the Ministry is underway" (the Ragusa plant is closing and is already 
being dismantled, in its place by 2028 a series of small initiatives - a 
plant for the production of vegetable oils destined for the 
biorefineries of Priolo and Gela; a mechanical recycling plant for 
plastics; a training center and one for the creation of new businesses - 
which will leave many people on foot).

Before introducing the version of the Sicilian Region, through the words 
of councilor Alessandro Dagnino, a brief reconstruction is useful. In 
October 2024, Eni announced the "Transformation, decarbonization and 
relaunch plan for Versalis": a plan to be implemented within five years 
and which includes investments of over two billion euros. As is typical 
of six-legged friends, Eni unilaterally chooses which sites to close, 
without any preliminary dialogue with the territories. And so the cross 
has fallen on the entire polyethylene plant in Ragusa and on the 
cracking lines in Priolo and Brindisi. The other Versalis plants, from 
Porto Torres to the Po Valley quadrilateral of Ferrara, Ravenna, Mantua 
and Porto Marghera, have been safeguarded, at least for now. Once again, 
therefore, a southern question arises, because the plants in the South 
are being sunk, despite their potential. In any case, in March of this 
year we arrive at the usual memorandum of understanding at the Ministry 
of Enterprise and Made in Italy: as if the ridiculous name of the 
ministry were not enough, even the agreement signed by the unions (CISL, 
UIL, UGL but not CGIL) is of the same tenor, because it limits itself to 
offering a few more pseudo guarantees that in reality are the usual 
consolation prizes provided by Eni. A script identical to the one 
written ten years earlier, more precisely in 2014, when the six-legged 
dog chose to close the Gela refinery (and not because it was polluting 
but because it was an economic sieve), causing at least 900 people to 
lose their jobs, according to CGIL figures. In March, the Sicilian 
Region had partly surprised by not having signed the ministerial 
protocol, as CGIL had done. The surprise, however, did not last long: 
just a few days later, Schifani and his people signed the so-called 
"addendum". In practice, they snatched a few crumbs and showed them off 
as miracle bread. According to Councilor Dagnino, "the guarantee of job 
maintenance was accepted both in the transition phase and at full 
capacity, through the company's commitment to employing decommissioning 
personnel" (and we can believe Eni's promises, of course, since Gela and 
Porto Torres have still been waiting since 2011). Furthermore, "Eni will 
provide mentoring to the related companies" (whatever that means), "the 
related companies will be involved through invitations to participate in 
tenders, naturally after prior verification of the adequacy of the 
related companies with respect to the new needs that will characterize 
the redevelopment" (i.e. what already normally happens, goodness 
six-legged friends who will invite the related companies to participate 
only to then discover that they obviously do not have the right 
characteristics given that the production lines are different from the 
old ones) and "finally we have obtained a better specification of the 
amount of the regional investment, in particular the company has 
specified, something that had not originally been done because a total 
figure had been reported, that the Sicilian investment will be 900 
million euros, of which 800 for the Priolo biorefinery and 100 for the 
Ragusa plant which will be transformed into a circularity platform in 
relation to the chemical recycling of plastics, in addition to small and 
additional resources as investment for some projects" (si in any case, 
it is an industrial downsizing that will lead to the loss of hundreds of 
jobs, for the related industries, while Eni has already assured that 
there will be changes in roles and transfers of headquarters).

With these indications the Region "considers itself satisfied" (and how 
could it not be). Now "the institutions and the social parties that 
signed the agreement will ensure full compliance with the commitments 
undertaken" (but that is precisely the problem). To understand the 
Versalis dispute, we must first translate the language of power, and do 
it constantly to make people understand what is really happening. In 
order not to repeat the defeat that occurred with the "conversion" of 
the refineries from now on, collective mobilization is needed: currently 
the only criticism of the six-legged reconversion plans comes from the 
Cgil, and we already know that without workers' self-organization and 
the solidarity of the struggle, the largest, and oldest, Italian union 
will take little time to give up.

https://www.sicilialibertaria.it/
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