From Farm to Gas: Inside Eni’s African Biofuels Gamble

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An in-depth look behind the scenes of Eni’s new inexperienced technique: growing new agricultural manufacturing channels from scratch in six African nations to provide its refineries and the rising “inexperienced” aviation market. All towards the backdrop of the Meloni authorities’s new affect technique in Africa, the Mattei Plan, which supplies satisfaction of place to vitality offers.

Key takeaways

• Eni’s new biofuel technique includes the large-scale deployment of a brand new crop, castor, which the corporate guarantees is “drought-resistant” and “doesn’t compete with meals manufacturing” inside African arid rural areas.
• In Kenya, the corporate is banking on the enrollment of hundreds of small-scale farmers recruited by cooperatives, whose harvest is dealt with by a number of intermediaries. In the meantime, within the Republic of Congo, the brand new program is being applied by agribusiness corporations which maintain giant land concessions.
• In each nations, the corporate is struggling to satisfy its industrial improvement targets: solely 24.5% of its 2023 manufacturing goal has been achieved in
• Kenya, the place two vegetable oil manufacturing crops are already operational.
• Eni has not moved past pilot levels in Congo and is but to launch the funds for the challenge, probably attributable to disappointing trial yields.
• Promoted as a brand new supply of earnings for Kenyan small-scale farmers, castor farming has in actuality been a supply of disappointment for a lot of of them, with their harvest significantly affected by drought, poor yields, and inadequate operational and technical assist.
• Native farmers at two of Eni’s proposed websites in Congo allege that land they historically farmed was expropriated by the federal government in favour of the agribusinesses with whom Eni is now partnering.
• In response to our questions, Eni denied that it had under-delivered on one in all its flagship inexperienced initiatives and emphasised anticipated “enhancements on agricultural yields” with the introduction of recent plant varieties.
• General, Eni’s obvious failure to satisfy its formidable agricultural manufacturing targets in Africa up to now calls into query the viability of rising crops for biofuels on the scale required to make significant emission reductions within the transport and aviation sectors.

Basic intro

One of many greatest oil corporations on the planet and vital producer of local weather change-causing fossil gasoline emissions, Italian state-controlled supermajor Eni, has positioned biofuels on the centre of its technique to attain internet zero carbon emissions by 2050.

The corporate plans to turn out to be a worldwide chief by 2035 within the manufacturing of so-called “sustainable fuels”. These use seed, nut and vegetable oils as the premise for gasoline blends which, based on official estimates, emit between 60-90% much less carbon dioxide than typical fossil fuels, relying on the uncooked supplies used.

The corporate says it is going to enhance biofuel manufacturing fivefold by the center of subsequent decade, setting one of the vital formidable targets amongst its European friends.

Biofuels obtained a lift on the COP28 summit held within the United Arab Emirates in December final yr, which known as on nations to “speed up” using “zero- and low-carbon fuels effectively earlier than or by round mid-century”.

The Italian authorities can be selling biofuels as a local weather answer at each the EU and G7 ranges, of which the nation now owns the Presidency. It simply launched a grand strategic plan for a renewal within the African-Italian collaboration, named after Enrico Mattei, who gave delivery to Eni; by which the brand new biofuels challenge performs a key position.

Eni’s technique, which started taking form in 2020, goals to provide 1 / 4 of its biofuel from agricultural sources by 2026, the majority of which can come from Africa the place it has signed provide agreements with six nations.

Eni is constructing a community of agri-hubs throughout Africa to course of vegetable oil from non-edible crops together with the three “Cs” — castor, croton and cotton — in addition to used cooking oil from eating places and lodges.

Eni says that these crops, or feedstocks, are immune to drought and appropriate for planting on degraded soils, and can be grown by native farmers who will profit economically.

Eni has labelled them “renewable uncooked supplies” as a result of, together with reused cooking oil, they’re “not competing with the meals chain”.

They’re meant to interchange conventional biofuel feedstocks, together with palm oil, which Eni has relied on beforehand however which have lengthy been proven to trigger deforestation and worsen the local weather, biodiversity and meals crises.

Eni ships the processed vegetable oil hundreds of kilometres again to Italy for conversion at its biorefineries, together with into sustainable aviation gasoline (SAF), a product the corporate plans to roll out in 2024 as international demand skyrockets. The corporate just lately signed a cope with Ryanair for the availability of 100 000 tons of SAF between 2025 and 2030.

In a 70-page photograph guide Eni revealed in Could 2022, titled “Seeds for Power” the corporate highlighted Kenya and the Republic of Congo as two African nations the place it’s making probably the most headway with its biofuels technique. They continue to be “probably the most superior initiatives” in Eni’s bid to transform vegetable oil into biofuels, based on its web site as on the publication date of this report.

In Kenya it has focused tens of hundreds of small-scale farmers as oil seed suppliers; whereas in Congo it plans to develop feedstock at scale on a number of large tracts of land owned by multinational agribusinesses.

Transport & Atmosphere (T&E) performed area journeys in each nations within the latter half of 2023 to evaluate the influence and viability of a challenge that not solely types a key a part of Eni’s general decarbonisation technique, however which might act as a blueprint for the biofuels business.

T&E interviewed farmers and different key political and enterprise figures concerned within the challenge to verify whether or not Eni’s guarantees to communities and the setting have been being met.

The investigation additionally gathered provide contracts and manufacturing knowledge from challenge contributors, and combed via Eni’s in depth public relations and investor disclosures, to evaluate whether or not the corporate is on monitor to satisfy its manufacturing targets.

We conclude that Eni is performing under — in some instances, effectively under — its lofty and impressive objectives.

Kenya: sowing seeds of disappointment

Eni has set formidable targets for its Kenya programme, which started in earnest in mid-2022 with the completion of an agri-hub in Makueni county, within the semi-arid south east a part of the nation.

Eni anticipated to recruit 25,000 small-scale farmers to provide 30,000 annual tonnes of vegetable oil by 2023, based on the photograph guide it revealed in mid-2022, titled “Seeds for Power”, by which it outlined its technique. Manufacturing would rise to 200,000 tonnes per yr by 2026, it mentioned.

The guide explains that Eni will work inside the Kenyan “huge arid” rural areas the place “small farmers, with about 1 hectare of land every” predominate. The challenge includes farmers rising “drought-resistant crops, appropriate for soils that aren’t in competitors with meals manufacturing”. Eni will “present assist providers for manufacturing and mechanization”, and the initiative is predicted to create “new jobs and earnings for farming households”.

The principle vegetable oils Eni is concentrating on come from castor bean, croton and cotton seeds which develop in semi-arid areas within the central Rift Valley, japanese and coastal areas. Eni has signed agreements with ten devolved county governments, together with Makueni, which additionally leased public land to Eni for the primary “agri-hub”.

In response to the corporate, the highest 5 Kenyan counties for castor manufacturing are Makueni,Taita Taveta, Kitui, Nakuru and Machakos, whereas “croton bushes are largely concentrated in Makueni, Nakuru and Laikipia”.

The central resort city of Naivasha — whose freshwater lake helps a thriving horticultural business which provides European supermarkets with contemporary flowers, fruit and greens — hosts a pilot castor plantation the place seed varieties are examined for his or her suitability earlier than being distributed to smallholders across the nation on Eni’s behalf.

The crop yields are then collected, consolidated and delivered by a community of cooperatives, brokers and aggregators to the Eni agri-hub in Makueni. A second processing facility just lately turned operational at Bonje, in Kwale county close to Mombasa, with two extra deliberate.

Lastly, Eni ships the vegetable oil hundreds of kilometres from the Mombasa port to its biorefineries in Sicily and Venice, the place it’s transformed into biofuel.

The Kenyan authorities has thrown its weight behind the challenge, attracted by the promise of jobs and funding within the drier, poorer components of the nation, in addition to the mirrored glory of the challenge’s local weather credentials.

It signed a memorandum of understanding with Eni in 2021 to collectively conduct feasibility research into the challenge, resulting in the inclusion of state-owned agricultural institutes and universities in analysis.

Lastly, the state is eyeing the consolidation and management of oil crop manufacturing, with the introduction of a invoice within the Senate, or higher home, late final yr.

The Kenyan authorities’s pleasure is shared by the World Financial institution, whose Worldwide Finance Company (IFC) funding arm is contemplating a $210m direct mortgage to Eni’s Kenyan subsidiary. It additionally proposes underwriting an extra $60m mortgage portfolio in partnership with a Kenyan industrial financial institution.

The direct mortgage is to finance the event of as much as 4 agri-hubs in Kenya in addition to to offer working capital for feedstock sourcing. The subsidiary mortgage is earmarked for farmers and aggregator corporations supplying the agri-hubs.

On the time of publication, the IFC informed T&E {that a} resolution had not been made but in regards to the challenge, however didn’t present extra particulars on the precise timeline for the funding resolution.

Nevertheless, having skilled the challenge first-hand, many farmers inform a special story: one in all exaggerated guarantees, an absence of assist and a crop that has not proved to be commercially viable for them. Many have given up after only one or two cropping seasons.

Faltering begin

Wote city is the bustling capital of Makueni county, a primarily rural, agricultural a part of Kenya, and one of many central nodes for Eni’s biofuels challenge.

Located in a valley two hours drive south-east of the nationwide capital, Nairobi, Wote city centre has a full of life really feel. Individuals come to promote their agricultural produce right here, or to choose up items and provides for his or her smallholdings which start on the outskirts of city, and the place they develop fruit, grains and pulses.

Down a dusty monitor that results in the Wote public park stand a pair of single-storey buildings that home hyperlinks in a provide chain stretching from the sun-parched rural areas of Makueni to the metallic pipework of an Eni biorefinery in Sicily.

The primary constructing, in your left, is the Makueni Fruit Processor Cooperative, which helps farmers accustomed to producing mangoes and beans, however which has enrolled 80 of its members to additionally develop oil seeds for Eni. However co-op director Joseph Nzaku, himself a farmer, is downbeat. “There are such a lot of challenges. Farmers are turning adverse on the challenge”, he says. We’ll encounter such negativity usually in interviews over the approaching days.

A second constructing, situated just some metres away, seems to be a warehouse belonging to a family-owned firm, known as Tosheka Textiles, one other middleman between native farmers and Eni.

Piled up in multicoloured gunny baggage are the stays of slim pickings from the 2023 rising season: 20 baggage of castor beans and 15 of croton seeds. The castor is about three tonnes-worth, a Tosheka employees member tells us. It’s a part of a five-tonne harvest gathered in dribs and drabs from farmers in surrounding areas over a number of months, consolidated on the warehouse, and is awaiting supply to Eni’s processing plant about 20 minutes’ drive out of city in Kwa Kathoka village. “Castor may be very uncommon”, she says, alluding to the disappointing yields.

We then fan out into the scrub-dotted nation round Wote to talk to farmers. Most are smallholders, with a number of hectares beneath cultivation. They develop meals for his or her family wants, in addition to on the market in the marketplace. Some say they’ve tried intercropping castor and croton bushes alongside conventional crops akin to beans, cowpeas, maize and mangoes. Others say that the bushes get in the best way of taller crops, akin to maize, so that they have put aside land solely for the biofuel feedstock.

In Nthangu ward, we encounter Benjamin Muendo, who runs one other cooperative which has enrolled 1,000 native farmers to the challenge. “Everyone seems to be beneath producing” he says, earlier than reeling off a number of causes together with drought, harm by bugs and wild animals, unsuitable crop varieties in addition to low costs provided by Eni.

That is backed up by a number of interviews T&E performed with each particular person farmers and the 2 major cooperatives representing 30 000 and 600 farmers in Makueni respectively. Different interviews have been performed in Nakuru county, located within the extra fertile soils of the central Nice Rift Valley.

All reported disappointments and issues in regards to the challenge.

Drought

Mary Nduku grows castor for the challenge on one of many larger farms T&E encountered in Makueni county, a 2.5 hectare plot located 45 minutes drive away from Wote city. Planting castor appeared promising to her, as she hoped to get extra manufacturing all year long than along with her different crops. However the drought has now killed her castor bushes, she says, and she or he might want to begin once more.

Josephine Muli, a part of a self-help group mobilized by the county authorities of Makueni to develop castor for the challenge, testified that a lot of the bushes on her farm dried out earlier than she bought a crop off them. She was left with a small part which produced simply 11 kilograms of seed, and which she intends to uproot quickly. Marietta Kanini, who lives close by, mentioned that she solely planted castor for one season “earlier than they dried”.

Kenya has endured 5 consecutive failed wet seasons and higher-than-average temperatures between 2020 and 2023 ensuing within the worst drought in 40 years, based on a significant worldwide scientific research revealed final April. It concluded that human-induced local weather change had made such droughts a lot stronger and 100 occasions extra probably.

Sarcastically, the drought has hampered efforts by Eni to mitigate its environmental influence by rising crops for biofuels.

In response to our questions, Eni maintains that castor is “effectively tailored to arid and semi-arid areas of Kenya” and considers that “improved seed varieties and good agricultural practices will enable to enhance the power of the crop to reply to excessive drought occasions” sooner or later.

Benjamin Muendo, who runs the Kitise cooperative which is likely one of the key farmers’ organizations concerned within the challenge in Makueni, disagrees with Eni’s evaluation after a number of rising seasons. He has known as on Eni to offer farmers within the space with irrigation methods as a result of “we can not depend on rainfall alone”. Nevertheless, Eni has dominated this out.

The drought was adopted, in late 2023 and early 2024, by weeks of torrential rain which triggered floods in components of the nation, together with within the japanese and coastal areas the place the majority of Eni’s biofuel feedstock is grown.

The flooding triggered in depth harm to highway and bridge infrastructure, additional disrupting the circulation of agricultural commodities, in addition to the availability of area assist which farmers concerned within the challenge have been promised.

Servizi Agricoli Forestali Africa (SAFA), one in all Eni’s major agricultural companions in Kenya, acknowledged that “the years 2022 and a part of 2023 have been labeled because the driest of the final 40 years,” however emphasised that “nonetheless, in these circumstances, castor has confirmed to outlive and produce higher than all different crops which have failed”.

Equally to Eni, SAFA can be assured that the introduction of recent crop varieties will assist alleviate points related to drought in Kenya’s most arid areas, at the same time as the whole area is more and more put beneath stress by the rising results of local weather change.

Lack of assist

Eni now claims to have enrolled 80,000 farmers over 50,000 hectares of land in Kenya because the inception of the challenge. In response to the corporate, 4 nation-wide recruitment campaigns have been performed in 2022 and 2023, having initially concerned 11,000 farmers, then a further 15,000, 22,000 and 34,000 farmers per marketing campaign.

These numbers have proved troublesome to confirm as county governments and cooperatives interviewed as a part of this investigation both don’t maintain correct data or have been unwilling to reveal proof of farmers’ enrollments within the challenge.

Nevertheless, in Nakuru county, one of many much less marginal and extra agriculturally productive counties in Kenya, authorities data seen by T&E point out that solely about 700 farmers have been contracted in 2022. In Makueni county, the 2 major cooperatives enrolled by Eni reported working with 80 and 1,000 farmers respectively.

In any case, Eni has subcontracted the “technical and operational assist” it pledged to offer farmers to quite a lot of native corporations. These work with farmers instantly, by way of a community of cooperatives and brokers, and with the assist of the varied county governments.

Servizi Agricoli Forestali Africa (SAFA) is an agricultural providers firm co-founded in 2021 and majority-owned by an Italian, Diego Barili, alongside his minority Kenyan associate, Allan Bett.. From their base at Marula Property in Naivasha, SAFA grows castor seeds supplied to them by Eni after which distributes them to farmers free of charge.

In return, farmers comply with ship any crops they produce completely to SAFA at designated assortment factors across the nation. SAFA then delivers the crops to Eni, and pays the farmers.

Different corporations are additionally getting in on the act. Unbiased brokers akin to Tosheka Textiles, which T&E encountered in Wote, distribute seeds and transport crops on behalf of Eni. Like SAFA, Tosheka claims to offer coaching and technical assist to farmers, akin to land preparation and tilling. Tosheka additionally takes a minimize of the farmers’ pay by promoting the seeds at a better worth to Eni’s agri-hub. Different cooperatives, akin to Kitise, additionally take a “comfort price” and are in command of recruiting farmers and preserving manufacturing data.

Farmers say they’re promised assist once they signal as much as the challenge however that this not often materializes. Marietta Kanini, whose castor bushes dried out early, says that her contractors promised to convey a tractor to until her rocky land however by no means delivered, leaving the seeds she planted to die. Her neighbor, Josephine Muli, regardless of having obtained two days of coaching, mentioned that she planted her seeds after the wet season, which then struggled attributable to an absence of water. Mary Nduku complained that SAFA promised to offer her with pesticide after termites attacked her bushes, however by no means did.

SAFA denied not having supplied enough assist to farmers, emphasizing that “it’s in (their) curiosity that the farmers obtain steady manufacturing ranges” and that “technicians are persevering with their technical help work”. The corporate added: “In some areas, nearly all farmers who reported poor leads to the 2022 marketing campaign have rejoined the brand new marketing campaign.”

T&E additionally heard complaints that the seeds farmers obtained grew too slowly, or grew too tall for them to reap the topmost components, or failed to provide the volumes they have been promised. For example, Benjamin Mbelenzi, a farmer in Nthangu ward close to Wote city, says he mobilised 200 farmers to develop castor: “We got seeds and informed once they fruit they’ll come and accumulate them then pay us. Nevertheless, these seeds didn’t do effectively in any respect. A few of us produced only one or two kilos.”

These and different testimonies gathered from farmers — together with from Nakuru county, the place Eni’s associate SAFA is headquartered — counsel that Eni and its enterprise companions are presently unable to offer technical and operational assist for a challenge of this magnitude and complexity.

Skilled industrial farmers who’ve run initiatives involving outgrowers within the East African area consider Eni’s oil executives have underestimated the dimensions of the problem in Kenya. Mentioned one: “It’s an infinite skillset and requires extraordinarily competent individuals. You want individuals to run it who’ve been born right here, who perceive the outgrower group 100%, who know the way to talk with them correctly, and to handle them. Eni doesn’t have that. They’ve simply are available in and mentioned to individuals, “You’ve bought land. Listed below are some seeds, right here’s some coaching.” It takes a lifetime to discover ways to run group outgrower programmes correctly.”

Commercially unviable

Many farmers mentioned that the labour required to develop, choose, shell and dry the castor beans was merely not well worth the worth Eni and their agent SAFA are providing for them.

T&E obtained contracts between Makueni farmers and SAFA which present costs of KSh25 being provided for a kilogram of deshelled castor beans and KSh7 per kilo of croton nuts in 2022. At these charges, a ten kilogram crop of shelled castor beans would have earned a farmer nearly €1.42. Few farmers T&E encountered managed to provide even this quantity of castor beans in 2023.

Marietta Kanini mentioned: “I used to be given a contract for a number of years however I’m considering of leaving as a result of there is no such thing as a revenue. If you plant castor it stays for too lengthy [without producing] and harvesting it’s tedious.” Her neighbor Josephine Muli says she received’t develop castor anymore: “The beans are light-weight, the costs are low. I might somewhat simply plant beans and maize.”

A farmer in Nakuru county additionally defined to T&E that harvesting the beans is “anxious” as a result of bean and shell don’t separate simply. After they do, the bean itself “lacks weight” making the costs provided per kilo even tougher to acquire.

Despite the fact that different farmers referred T&E to her due to her green-fingered fame, she mentioned her castor-growing efforts earned her simply KShs300 (about €1.70). By comparability, she was capable of produce two harvests of frequent beans value KShs72,000 (about €420) earlier than her castor bushes produced a single seed. She says she threw her remaining castor seeds away, and doesn’t plan to develop them once more.

Benjamin Mbelenzi, the Makueni farmer who was initially so enthused by the challenge that he signed up a lot of his mates and neighbours, mentioned the prices he incurred far outstripped what he earned: “I made a decision it wasn’t value footing the price of travelling to the hub to ship my crop. I might have paid KShs400 (€2.50) in transport to earn KShs56 (€0.35) for the beans. In truth, it price me KShs5,000 (€30) to uproot the [castor] stumps from my farm.”

In response to our questions, SAFA justified the acquisition worth provided as a result of it elements within the worth of actions akin to land preparation, seed planting and extension providers that SAFA supplies to farmers.

“The precise worth for the farmer is due to this fact considerably larger than the straightforward buying worth,” SAFA mentioned; and that general “this system can have a constructive influence on farmers in marginal areas of Kenya”. Eni’s response adopted comparable traces.

SAFA added that the worth it provided farmers for his or her croton seeds was “higher (…) than different gamers with a view to revitalise the availability chain”.

Eni elevated its provide from KSh25 to KSh35 per kilo for shelled castor beans in 2023, however Kitise cooperative chief Muendo says that this would wish to greater than double to make financial sense for his members.

SAFA mentioned that “the buying worth is agreed yearly with Eni and communicated to farmers earlier than the sowing marketing campaign”.

Scalable?

In stark distinction to the dissatisfaction expressed by Kenyan farmers, Eni informed its buyers in Could 2023 that “the cultivations carried out up to now in Kenya, in traditionally water‐poor areas, have already supplied passable outcomes from a manufacturing standpoint”.

General manufacturing volumes are troublesome to confirm as the corporate declined to offer figures in response to our questions. Nevertheless, even a partial image obtained by T&E from fieldwork in one of many major producing native counties suggests the preliminary output has been very low. In Makueni, Kitise cooperative mentioned it solely bought 10 tonnes from over 1,000 farmers it enrolled within the 2022 season.

Eni additionally declined to offer figures for the volumes it shipped from Kenya to Italy in 2023.

Nevertheless, on the identical Could 2023 name with buyers Eni said it had shipped 300 tonnes of croton and cotton oil from Kenya in October 2022, and that “attributable to subsequent manufacturing we’re within the technique of sending the primary cargo of vegetable oils of about 4,000 tonnes in bulk” [mainly castor oil it had been stockpiling].

Customs knowledge analysed by T&E masking the interval January to November 2023 signifies that 7,348 tonnes of castor oil have been shipped from Kenya to Italy. This comprised two shipments, in July and August 2023. No additional shipments of castor oil have been made between September and November 2023, based on commodities analyst Argus, which means that Eni exported simply 24.5% of its preliminary 30,000-tonne goal for 2023, as set out in its “Seeds for Power” guide.

In response to our questions, Eni said that its 2023 Kenyan manufacturing goal of 30 000 tonnes “refers back to the put in capability [of its biohubs] and never the manufacturing” and that “as such, the goal has been reached”.

Nevertheless, its Seeds for Power report clearly refers to 30 000 tonnes by 2023 as “an early agriculture manufacturing” goal; despite the fact that its 2022 annual report revised this downwards, stating that the corporate’s Kenya program is “anticipated to scale as much as 20,000 tons in 2023”. Ultimately, as T&E’s evaluation of 2023 customs knowledge signifies, Eni solely shipped round a 3rd of this already much-reduced goal final yr. In the meantime, its goal of 200,000 tonnes by 2026 would require a 27-fold enhance within the volumes Eni shipped final yr.

Eni is concentrating on improved yields, based mostly on the teachings it has discovered up to now. A lot will rely upon whether or not its pilot trials have certainly established the suitability and adaptableness of varied castor varieties for Kenyan circumstances. “The outcomes have been constructive and assist industrial growth,” it says.

The corporate can be aiming for “the in depth utility of fine agricultural practices” inside its provide chain, which incorporates “diversifying (…) to incorporate giant farmers”.

Nevertheless, as an skilled Kenyan government within the agri processing business noticed: “The issue is that Eni is a petroleum firm dabbling in agriculture. The 2 are very various things. They might have constructed a wise manufacturing facility, employed intelligent engineers and put in costly equipment, however that’s the comparatively straightforward bit. Making certain you may get the uncooked materials in enough amount and high quality is one other matter altogether.”

Republic of Congo: going nowhere slowly

Eni is betting {that a} completely different mannequin will succeed within the Republic of Congo (Congo-Brazzaville), the place its technique is to outsource manufacturing to multinational agribusinesses that maintain huge land concessions within the south of the nation.

Eni’s manufacturing targets in Congo are solely barely much less formidable than in Kenya: 170,000 tonnes a yr by 2026 rising to 200,000 tonnes per yr by 2030, based on the corporate web site. An agri-hub is beneath development in Loudima city that may course of 30,000 tonnes of vegetable oil per yr, and extra capability is deliberate.

T&E performed a area journey to castor plantations within the Niari and Bouenza departments mid-way via 2023, with a follow-up go to final December to evaluate Eni’s progress. A 3rd plantation, located within the restive Pool area to the east, was thought of too unsafe to go to.

Whereas development of the agri-hub at Loudima has progressed, and is predicted to be operational in early 2024, based on Eni, sources mentioned that poor outcomes from the rising trials that started in 2022 have stalled additional funding by Eni within the farms. The scenario is exacerbated by the dwindling monetary fortunes of one in all its agribusiness companions.

Regardless of being “probably the most superior” of Eni’s African biofuel ventures, alongside Kenya, the stream of vegetable oil from Congo to Italy has but to start.

Signal at Eni’s agri-hub development web site in Loudima, Republic of Congo, Photograph: Marien NZIKOU-MASSALA

A sequence of false begins

Few individuals in Louvakou suppose that the large foreign-owned plantation on their doorstep is doing effectively.

Not Martine Moussahou, whose household leases a part of its in depth lands to Agri Sources, a Congolese subsidiary of multinational conglomerate Monaco Sources, in return for a quarterly rental price. This has not been paid for a while attributable to an unexplained “monetary disaster”, she complains.

Nor Alphonse Badianga, a neighborhood resident puzzled by the shortage of exercise on the 22,000-hectare (220km2) plantation. “We don’t actually perceive what it’s doing any extra. They tried to plant rice within the first 18 months, then nothing. We don’t know whether or not they’re leaving or not, as a result of issues appear to have come to a standstill.”

Press stories counsel that Monaco Sources is in monetary hassle, and is desperately searching for new funding, whereas its native subsidiary Agri Sources was sued in 2019 by a minority shareholder for forgery and fraud. A former worker of the corporate additionally alleges that funds have been diverted from its farming operations, a declare which T&E put to the corporate however didn’t obtain a response.

Nevertheless, talking to T&E on the plantation in June final yr, technical supervisor Manuel Saunieme was upbeat: “We’ve simply accomplished a really profitable first trial of castor oil crops and we await the discharge of funds from Eni to start planting in October [2023].”

However when T&E returned to Louvakou in December 2023 a special account of the preliminary trial emerged, courtesy of Agri Sources’s chief accountant. Planted on 300 hectares, the trial didn’t produce good yields, Bon Samaritain Biene Biene informed us. “The anticipated yield was not conclusive in view of the projections that we had made. We should attain a sure goal to qualify for conclusive checks”, he mentioned.

Eni declined to touch upon the yields obtained from the pilot performed at Agri Sources’ farm, and said that it was not conscious of the corporate’s monetary misery. Agri Sources didn’t reply to our request for remark.

Because of the disappointing trial, the November wet season that was supposed for use for big scale planting was “missed” whereas an “adaptation plan” is finalised with Eni, Biene Biene informed us. Eni confirmed that it had undertaken a enterprise collaboration with Agri Sources in 2021 for the event of castor farming pilots, however that “no funding was granted to Agri Sources within the body of this challenge aside from price reimbursement”.

One strategy to enhance yields can be to make use of pesticides, Biene Biene mentioned, whereas a soil evaluation has already been performed on the farm by a Congolese fertilizer producer known as CA Agri, he mentioned. That is at odds with Eni’s public statements in regards to the challenge, which promise to shift away from using environmentally damaging agricultural inputs in the direction of “biofertilizers” produced as a byproduct at its agri-hubs.

In response to our questions relating to using pesticides on the farm, Eni said that “farmers can think about the appliance of agro-chemicals, when needed, so long as that is in accordance with the ISCC — EU regulation”.

Related struggles have been reported at Tolona farm, one other of Eni’s meant challenge companions, which is located 60 kilometres east of Louvakou close to Loudima within the neighboring division of Bouenza.

Tolona’s concession is barely barely lower than Agri Sources’ at 20,000 hectares (200km2), and is devoted to mangoes, maize, poultry.

Tolona farm, close to Loudima, Republic of Congo., Photograph: Marien NZIKOU-MASSALA
In response to Eni, Tolona performed a castor bean trial on 800 hectares of land. One among Tolona’s employees members interviewed by T&E mentioned that the trial was “a hit”, besides that “we didn’t get any machines from Eni-Congo to reap the beans, so the whole lot dried up within the grass”.

Talking to T&E on situation of anonymity in July 2023, the employee mentioned that his employers have been “ready for the wet season [which begins in November] and funding from Eni to launch large-scale cultivation”.

Nevertheless, when T&E returned to the farm a second time, in early December, no additional planting had taken place. In response to our questions, Eni confirmed that the pilot had resulted in “restricted performances”. Tolona’s supervisor Oscar Gonzáles Martínez additionally responded, saying that the crop “must be (…) tailored to tropical areas” and that future collaboration with Eni will “rely upon that and different elements associated to finance and profitability”.

Throughout the preliminary trial, the harvest was hampered by illnesses resulting in using dangerous pesticides, based on Boubathe Bambi, one other farm employee. “After I went to spray the seeds, my face bought swollen as a result of fumes and dirt I inhaled. That’s once I realized these are usually not merchandise to play with, they’re poisonous,” he mentioned.

Gonzàles Martínez mentioned no such incident was reported to him by farmers. ”All of the phytosanitary merchandise used are licensed by the EU,” he mentioned, including that ”the individuals have been educated (…) and outfitted with skilled gear”. Nevertheless, he acknowledged that “Tolona has its personal strategic imaginative and prescient, and as actual farmers with actual expertise in Congo we all know that there is no such thing as a chance of doing any worthwhile crop with out fertigation”.

Having did not make progress in the direction of industrial manufacturing in Congo in 2023, Eni informed us that “actions are beneath preparation for the 2024 agricultural season”. It would conduct pilot trials on 1,200 hectares of land, and says it has “recognized” 20,000 hectares of land the place it is going to domesticate castor from September. These actions can be performed in the identical areas the place the primary unsuccessful trials have taken place, notably within the Niari and Bouenza areas the place Agri Sources and Tolona function, in addition to within the Pool area. Solely the “greatest performing varieties” can be adopted in 2024, Eni mentioned.

The parable of Congo’s “virgin land”

The land which the Congolese authorities granted to Agri Sources and Tolona to farm within the south of the nation is bigger than the European cities of Basel and Liverpool mixed.

Unsurprisingly for an space this dimension, each concessions have led to allegations of land expropriation with out compensation by native communities. This raises awkward questions for Eni’s technique of large-scale biofuel manufacturing in some African nations, even when the oil main was not the unique beneficiary of the concessions in query.

Close to Louvakou in Niari, instances of land and crop dispossession have been reported by farmers following the Minister of Land Affairs’ resolution to grant a big land concession to AgriResources as a part of a authorized disposition which permits the State to expropriate people or corporations with a view to pursue “public utility” objectives.

“As quickly as the world was declared to be within the public curiosity, the inhabitants who farmed there was trapped, the exploitation of it by Agri Sources started, and the individuals couldn’t oppose it,” mentioned Alphonse Badianga, a resident of Mbouma, the place lots of the dispossessed farmers come from.

Audrey Madingou, one other native, remembers: “They [Agri Resources] moved in and began destroying the fields. After they ransacked the plantations, they didn’t even ask the plantation house owners to return and take their cassava crops.”

“Following this destruction, the inhabitants rose up and compelled the corporate to name in an agricultural officer to survey the fields [which included fruit trees, banana and cassava plantations] and assess them with a view to receiving compensation. This could have occurred previous to the evictions,” Badianga recounted.

An extended stand-off between the corporate and the group ensued, ending in a authorized settlement in 2022 by which Agri Sources agreed to compensate 57 farmers an quantity of 15 million CFA francs in whole — about €20,000 — based on paperwork seen by T&E.

Some households who held authorized title over components of the land have been capable of safe a 50-year lease settlement with Agri Sources, akin to Martine Moussahou, who says she has nonetheless struggled to get the corporate to honor its quarterly rental funds.

Households with out title deeds misplaced out altogether, like Ngoma Koukebene, one of many village chiefs who says his group has been “marginalized” by the rezoning of the land.

Since then, farmers akin to Madingou say they’ve seen their very own manufacturing has decreased. “Our cassava simply rots within the soil, we expect that is due to soil air pollution attributable to pesticide use [by Agri Resources],” he mentioned.

Following an invite from the group to conduct a area go to to the world in 2021, a Congolese human rights non-governmental group compiled a report, which states: “Residents additionally deplore air pollution of the land and rivers, and are uncovered to bacterial infections and even blindness, because the village chief identified. With the relocation from their fields they’re pressured to journey lengthy distances on foot to go to work.”

In response to our questions on Eni’s data of the disputes between its enterprise associate, Agri Sources, and native farmers, the oil firm would solely say: “To our data, Agri Sources has been granted authorizations by the federal government and operates on land rented beneath contract with landowners.” Agri Sources didn’t reply to questions in any respect.

Related instances of land expropriation have been reported at Tolona farm, which signed a lease instantly with the Congolese authorities in 2016 for a 20,000 hectare (200km2) slice of state-owned land on the banks of Niari river at Kinguembo, a number of kilometres north-east of Loudima.

A number of sources complained of “land dispossession”, akin to Mr Walas, who belongs to one in all six households who farmed at Kinguembo earlier than the federal government leased it to Tolona. Walas mentioned that communities didn’t obtain any compensation as a result of “the Minister of Land Affairs demanded that we current our land titles, however we didn’t have any”. He expressed remorse that his household “haven’t benefited something” from the agricultural challenge he was pressured to make means for.

Henri Mboungou, who chairs an affiliation of landowners in Loudima district, talked about that that they had tried to deal with the problem of “uncontrolled sale of plots of land” with the ministry, however with restricted success.

In response to Tolona supervisor Oscar Gonzàles Martínez, six households certainly claimed property of the Tolona farm when the Congolese Ministry determined to grant the land concession to his firm. He emphasised that these households had not developed any farming exercise on the land by the point Tolona arrived and that authorized proceedings led by one of many household leaders proved unsuccessful.

Such instances are usually not an outlier in Congo, the place land-hungry foreign-owned agribusinesses are capable of swat apart poorly-resourced and uninformed communities on the stroke of a authorities official’s pen.

Mentioned a former senior supervisor of Agri Sources current on the time the agency established itself in Louvakou: “We got here to Congo to develop agriculture as a result of there was plenty of virgin land obtainable.”

However sparsely populated land doesn’t essentially imply virgin land, as group members’ testimony reveals.

Justifying Agri Sources’ willingness to settle in Congo Brazzaville, he mentioned that there was a must develop agriculture to offer meals for the native inhabitants, like rice.”

However how this squares with Eni’s intention to transform a few of this land into non-edible crops for biofuel manufacturing betrays one more inconsistency on the coronary heart of its public narrative.

In response to our questions on whether or not the brand new biofuel initiatives dangers competing with the cultivation of edible crops, each Eni and Tolona emphasised that pilots have been performed on beforehand uncultivated areas inside the farm. Requested to make clear whether or not this meant that virgin bushland had been cleared for the challenge, Eni mentioned that EU certification prohibits it from “conversion of areas characterised by a excessive carbon content material, akin to wetlands and forests”.

Conclusion

Launched with fanfare as a part of Eni’s technique to turn out to be carbon impartial by 2050, Eni’s “Seeds for Power” biofuels challenge is predicated on lofty guarantees and optimistic targets. These embody:

• That one of many world’s greatest and most worthwhile oil and gasoline corporations can, within the area of a half-decade, create and safe a completely new provide chain of “sustainable oils” from agriculture.
• That these oils can come from drought-resistant crops, grown in marginal and semi-arid areas by farmers in Africa, one of many world’s poorest and most climate-stressed continents.
• That farmers would obtain coaching and assist, and profit economically from their labour.
• the non-edible crops they produce won’t compete with others within the meals chain or lead to land clearing or deforestation, as first technology biofuel feedstocks akin to palm oil have carried out previously.
• That Eni can be transport exponentially rising tonnages of vegetable oil from Africa, hitting 700,000 tonnes by 2026, or round 1 / 4 of its increasing biorefining capability.
• And that Eni will produce as much as 1 million tonnes of sustainable aviation gasoline (SAF) out of a complete 5 million tonnes of biorefining capability by 2030, contributing to the decarbonization of highway and air journey.

Nevertheless, investigations on the bottom within the two African nations the place Eni says it has superior the furthest — Kenya and the Republic of Congo — have uncovered a string of damaged guarantees and unmet targets.

The truth is that, after a number of years of effort, Eni’s biofuel challenge has gained little or no traction and that it’s nowhere close to its manufacturing targets.

Eni’s methods in each nations have revealed divergent flaws. In Kenya, the corporate subcontracts a fancy community of brokers and cooperatives, resulting in inefficiencies and disappointment for hundreds of small-scale farmers who don’t obtain ample assist or income.

On the flipside, Eni’s collaboration with “Large Agri” corporations within the Republic of Congo dangers associating this challenge with allegations of land dispossession and environmental degradation.

However in both case, small-scale farmers and mega-farms alike have tried and up to now did not develop drought-resistant biofuel crops at scale. The explanations behind this failure expose contradictions on the coronary heart of Eni’s plans.

Firstly, rising international temperatures triggered primarily by fossil gasoline emissions, the beating coronary heart of Eni’s enterprise mannequin for many years, are making it more and more troublesome for farmers to develop crops attributable to unpredictable climate patterns and unstable weather conditions. Kenyan farmers have mentioned they would wish to irrigate their crops with scarce water to acquire the yields Eni has envisaged.

Secondly, it’s troublesome for a corporation as hard-wired for hydrocarbon manufacturing as Eni to diversify into agricultural manufacturing on the tempo and scale they’ve set. Whereas Diego Barili of SAFA, a Kenyan agricultural providers firm which has partnered with Eni, believes that “an organization like Eni has to set difficult objectives”, one other skilled Kenyan government within the agri processing business noticed: “Eni is a petroleum firm dabbling in agriculture. The 2 are very various things. You may pay guys excessive salaries and set up them in fancy workplaces, however making an attempt to place collectively a completely new provide chain based mostly on introducing totally new crops is way tougher than it seems to be. It’s a steep studying curve that takes a number of years.”

Eni has been making an attempt since 2021. Whereas it could be too quickly to jot down the challenge off totally, some elementary issues come up.

For Eni: does it actually have the ability, the dedication and the persistence to make this challenge work long-term? Or is it merely a fig leaf for persevering with to pursue a business-as-usual technique?

In each Kenya and the Republic of Congo, the corporate holds licenses to take advantage of offshore oil and gasoline reserves similtaneously sourcing biofuel feedstocks. Eni’s budgeting priorities for 2023-26 are additionally telling, with €25bn earmarked to probe for, and develop, new oil and gasoline initiatives in addition to sustaining manufacturing at current fields. The corporate has put aside lower than €3.4bn for biofuels. Whereas indicating it might not be conducting additional hydrocarbon exploration or manufacturing actions in Kenya, Eni mentioned that the manufacturing of vegetable oil for biorefining “has no direct relation” with its oil and gasoline operations. “Eni’s technique foresees reaching hydrocarbon manufacturing plateau in 2030; after that, manufacturing will lower, with gasoline prevailing over oil within the manufacturing combine,” the corporate mentioned.

For governments, akin to Kenya and Congo, which have rolled out the purple carpet for Eni by making public sources akin to land obtainable to it, and launched different favorable laws; in addition to multilateral establishments, such because the Worldwide Finance Company, which intends to mortgage tons of of hundreds of thousands of {dollars} to Eni to increase its biofuels challenge: with a lot local weather change adaptation and mitigation spending required, why allocate scarce public sources to assist the actions of a industrial firm that posted report income final yr, and will comfortably fund this challenge off its personal stability sheet?

Lastly, for residents and shoppers, particularly the flyers of planes to whom biofuels are offered as a magical answer for guilt-free journey, this investigation raises issues that this promise is just not lifelike and would possibly stop extra pressing local weather actions akin to flying much less.

Eni goals to provide as much as 1 million tonnes of sustainable aviation gasoline (SAF) by 2030. The corporate therefore ambitions to offer a big share of the European and international market by that point. Given the challenges Eni has up to now confronted in assembly its personal biofuel feedstock targets regardless of an formidable and revolutionary technique, the prospect that sustainable biofuels can contribute considerably to the EU aviation emissions reductions seems to be distant certainly.

See full methodology and references.

Courtesy of T&E.