Eni investing 7 billion euros in Italy over 4 years

MILAN (AP) - Eni CEO Claudio Descalzi says that the oil giant will invest 7 billion euros ($8.6 billion) in activities in its home country of Italy over the next four years.

Descalzi told investors Wednesday that the investments will include 1 billion euros into efforts to reduce its carbon footprint. That includes converting decommissioned terrain belonging to Eni totaling some 3 million hectares, mostly in southern Italy, to solar energy fields.

The CEO also underlined Eni's conversion of refineries in Venice and Gela into "green refineries" transforming waste into biodiesel, with a target of 1 million tons of biodiesel annually by 2021.

Eni said that oil and gas production increased by 4 percent in the first quarter of 2018, from 1.795 million barrels of gas and oil equivalent in the same period last year.