ENI began investing $3 billion in Congo for developing tar sands, palm oil, and electricity generated via biodiesel and gas in 2008. The Italian firm is ranked as one of the world’s most sustainable oil and gas companies, and it signed a MoU for palm oil cultivation on about 70,000 hectares of unfarmed land in the Niari region. The investment was to produce approximated 340,000 tons annually of crude palm oil, enough to cover domestic demand for food uses and produce 250,000 tons a year of biodiesel. On the heels of that, ENI even announced potential plans for a bio-refinery.
However, the oil company has faced backlash over deforestation and displacement as a result of its ventures. ENI responded by hiring Planetic Congo in a public tender to handle the mitigation of its environmentally degraded sites near Mbondi. Details of the tender have not been released, but several environmental groups have launched a campaign against ENI’s Congolese activities.
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