Former Eni SpA Chief Executive Officer Paolo Scaroni promised Italian unions he wouldn’t shut the company’s money-losing oil refineries until 2014. Now his successor looks ready to wield the ax.
Italy’s largest oil company has begun negotiations to close as much as half its 774,000 barrel-a-day capacity and put more than 3,500 jobs at risk, according to the industry’s main union, which is striking at one plant. Eni’s biggest program of closures would be a radical attempt by new CEO Claudio Descalzi to deal with overcapacity in Europe’s refining sector, where the region’s economic slump and competition from Asia has forced shutdowns and caused bankruptcies.
