The energy crisis triggered by the war with Iran and the risk of fuel rationing have brought attention back to refining capacity, that is, the availability of plants capable of transforming crude oil into gasoline, diesel, or kerosene. The oil transformation phase is the real “critical node,” since most economic activities and consumers do not use crude oil but its derivatives.
Italy and the European Union are vulnerable to the crisis in the Persian Gulf because this region accounts for over 40 percent of the EU’s imports of diesel and aviation fuel. In this regard, in a recent letter to member countries, Energy Commissioner Dan Jorgensen wrote that the bloc could face supply difficulties due to the “limited availability of alternative suppliers and refining capacity for specific products within the EU.”
In the European Union, oil refining capacity has long been in crisis: indeed, few refineries manage to reach break even (the condition of balance between revenues and expenses), having to cope with high energy prices and the payment of CO2 emission quotas. In Italy, specifically, the issue is not only the reduction of capacity but the loss of national ownership of the plants. As analyst Gianclaudio Torlizzi wrote on X, almost 80 percent of Italy’s refining capacity is under foreign control.
Already after Saras came under Vitol’s control, a large part of Italy’s refining capacity ended up under foreign control: 58 Mt/a out of 87.3 Mt/a total according to UNEM. Adding now Socar on Falconara and Trecate, the non-Italian share approaches 80%.
— Gianclaudio Torlizzi (@TCommodity) April 5, 2026
TRECATE AND FALCONARA REFINERIES FROM IP TO SOCAR (AZERBAIJAN)
Last September, the Azerbaijani state oil company Socar announced the signing of an agreement for the acquisition of almost all of Italiana Petroli, or Ip, an Italian refining and fuel distribution group controlled by the Brachetti Peretti family. Ip owns the refineries of Trecate (Piedmont) and Falconara (Marche), with a total capacity of about 10 million tons.
SARROCH REFINERY FROM SARAS TO VITOL (NETHERLANDS)
In 2024, the Dutch Vitol, one of the world’s leading commodity trading companies, acquired Saras, the oil refining company founded by Angelo Moratti.
Saras owns the Sarroch refinery, near Cagliari: it is one of the most important plants in southern Europe, with a production capacity of 15 million tons of crude oil per year.
PRIOLO REFINERY TO GOI ENERGY (CYPRUS)
In 2023, the Cypriot private equity company Goi Energy purchased the Isab refinery in Priolo Gargallo, Sicily, from the Russian oil company Lukoil.
Isab is the largest refinery in Italy: about 16 million tons per year, accounting alone for one fifth of the entire national refining capacity.
AUGUSTA REFINERY TO SONATRACH (ALGERIA)
The Algerian state oil company Sonatrach owns the Augusta refinery in Sicily, with a capacity of over 9 million tons per year.
For Italy, Algeria is also the largest supplier of natural gas via pipeline, meeting over 30 percent of national demand.
– Also read: Italy wants to gas up with Algeria (and beats Spain to it?)
MILAZZO REFINERY TO ENI AND Q8 (KUWAIT)
In Sicily is also the Milazzo refinery, with a capacity of 10 million tons per year. Ownership is split 50 percent between Eni and Kuwait Petroleum, the national oil company of Kuwait.
REFINERIES UNDER ITALIAN CONTROL: SANNAZZARO, TARANTO, AND LIVORNO
The oil refineries present on Italian territory and owned by Italians are almost all Eni’s, whose controlling shareholder is the Ministry of Economy: these are the plants of Sannazzaro de’ Burgondi (Lombardy; 10 million tons per year), Taranto (Apulia; 6.5 million tons per year), and Livorno (Tuscany; 4 million tons).
By 2026, however, the Livorno refinery will be converted into a biorefinery, that is, a plant dedicated to transforming agri-food waste into biofuels: it will be the third, after those in Venice and Gela. Some units of the Sannazzaro plant will also be dedicated to biorefining.
Another small Italian refinery is Alma Petroli in Ravenna, specialized in the production of bitumen.
CAROLLO’S ANALYSIS (EX-ENI)
Interviewed by Corriere della Sera, former Eni executive Salvatore Carollo said he fears “the loss of refining capacity. In twenty years we have halved it […]. Many plants in Italy have either been sold to foreigners or are being converted to bio: the consequence is a decline in gasoline and diesel production and therefore greater dependence on market purchases.”
Italy could therefore find itself facing “American competition for petroleum products,” Carollo explained. This is because the United States lacks “5-6 million refining capacity for gasoline, diesel, and jet fuel. With the reduction of refining in Europe, they have difficulty importing these products. That is why Trump met with the CEO of Trafigura, which manages the Priolo refinery, and that of Vitol, which owns the former Saras.”
