An Italian fossil fuel company that supplies oil to Israel and publicly withdrew from its bid to explore for fossil gas off the coast of Gaza.
Oil produced by Eni is estimated to account for 4% of the total crude oil that Israel imported between October 2023 - July 2024, according to Oil Change International. This makes Eni one of the largest non-state oil suppliers for Israel. Eni produces this oil in Kazakhstan and Italy.
Unlike fossil gas, which Israel produces itself, it completely relies on imports for its oil supply. Imported crude oil is refined in Israel into fuel and goes into the supply chain of local energy companies such as Bazan, Delek, Paz, and Sonol. These four companies are major fuel suppliers of the Israeli military, with Paz having a particularly controversial contract to supply jet fuel to the Israeli air force. The latter three companies are Israel’s largest commercial fuel suppliers, with gas stations across the country, including in Israel’s illegal settlements in the occupied Palestinian territory.
Gas Exploration - Bidding and Withdrawing
Eni was the primary stakeholder in a consortium that bid to explore for fossil gas off the shores of the Gaza Strip in the territorial waters of Palestine. Eni’s stake in the consortium was 75%, with 15% held by Korean state-owned company Dana Petroleum and 10% by Israeli company Ratio Energies. Eni was designated as the operator of the consortium, meaning that it would have managed the exploration and would have operated any future fossil gas extraction projects there.
The consortium placed its bid as part of Israel’s 4th Offshore Bid Round, which closed in July 2023. In October 2023, shortly after the start of the Gaza genocide, Israel announced the winners, with the Eni-Dana-Ratio consortium wining the exploration license for an area in the East Mediterranean Sea that Israel designates as Zone G.
62% of Zone G falls within the declared territorial waters of the State of Palestine. In February 2024, three leading Palestinian human rights organizations notified Eni that is must “desist from undertaking any activities in areas of Zone G that Palestine claims, as any such activities would constitute a flagrant violation of international law.”
Israel’s Energy Minister took pride in the fact that the licenses were given while Israel is at war, saying that this shows how “major natural gas exploration companies put their trust in Israel's robustness,” even though the companies bid for the licenses months before October 2023.
In October 2025, after facing public pressure about this activity, Eni quietly notified Israel and its corporate partners that it was withdrawing from the consortium. A couple of months later, the company issued a vague public statement on the matter, saying that it did not actually receive the license and that it “does not plan to be involved in activities in the area in the future.” Eni subsequently attempted to silence Italian civil society organization ReCommon for reporting on this news.
In March 2026, Eni’s official withdrawal from the bid was confirmed in Ratio Energies’ disclosure to the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange. Neither company gave a reason for Eni’s withdrawal, but according to Israeli newspaper TheMarker, it “came as no surprise, as the company was a target of anti-Israel protests in the last couple of years.”