Feb 18 (Reuters) - Italian energy major Eni is weighing re-entering oil and gas trading as it seeks the outsized returns enjoyed by BP , Shell and TotalEnergies as geopolitical tensions fuel energy
Italy's Eni weighs return to oil and gas trading, FT reports
Eni's Strategic Shift in Trading
Feb 18 (Reuters) - Italian energy major Eni is weighing re-entering oil and gas trading as it seeks the outsized returns enjoyed by BP, Shell and TotalEnergies, amid geopolitically-driven price volatility, the Financial Times reported on Wednesday.
CEO's Insights on Trading
"I stopped trading in 2019 but the other big companies are all traders," Eni Chief Executive Claudio Descalzi told FT. "BP, Shell, Total are big traders and they make billions from that."
Potential Partnerships
Descalzi said he has held preliminary talks with several commodity companies, including Mercuria, about forming a joint venture.
Independent Trading Unit
"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," he said.
Descalzi added that the trading unit would operate independently of Eni.
Bloomberg News reported in January that Eni was in talks with Mercuria over a potential partnership in commodity trading.
Vitol, the world's largest commodity trading house in terms of oil volumes sold, struck a deal with Eni in 2025 to acquire stakes in the Italian company's West African oil and gas assets.
(Reporting by Rishabh Jaiswal in Bengaluru; Editing by Eileen Soreng)
