Is Italy's support for Israel linked to Gaza's offshore gas?

Italy's lenient foreign policy with Israel may be influenced by the gas concessions off Gaza's coast that Israel recently handed to Italian oil company, Eni. 

On October 29, three weeks after Israel began its assault on Gaza, Israel's Energy Minister awarded 12 gas exploration licenses in two concessions zones. One of the zones is Zone G, awarded to Eni, the United Kingdom's Dana Petroleum and Israel's Ratio Petroleum Energy.

The Italian oil giant led the concession. 

"Why Gaza? Before October 7, Israel's blockade [of Gaza] was also tied to the huge gas fields off the coast. Some estimates put the windfall at over $200 billion. The Italians, like the Americans, have their eye on it"

Italy and Eni: One and the same?

It's an open secret that private fossil fuel companies are often linked to and shielded by their respective governments. For instance, TotalEnergies has ties with France and Shell formerly had ties with the Netherlands. However, these relationships are mostly kept under wraps.

Eni is a unique case study, however, as its close relationship with the Italian state is something that neither party hides.

In 2021, Italian NGO ReCommon — which campaigns against Eni — exposed a 2008 protocol between Eni and the Italian Ministry of Finance that allows Eni to station personnel at the ministry. The protocol remains in place today and aims to facilitate a "connection" between Italian diplomacy and Eni's interests.

In 2023, when Italian Prime Minister Georgia Meloni addressed the press during her visits to the Democratic Republic of Congo, Mozambique and Algeria as part of Italy's Africa-focused strategy, Meloni was accompanied by Eni's chief executive, Claudio Descalzi. The Italian media dubbed the strategy the "Descalzi Plan", named after the current CEO, or the "Mattei Plan", after Eni founder Enrico Mattei. 

The gas factor in the relationship between Israel and Italy began before the Zone G concessions were closed in July 2023, explains Pippo Taglieri, Energy and Infrastructure campaigner at ReCommon.

"If we look back to the Italy-Israel bilateral in Rome in March 2023, Benjamin Netanyahu specifically named Eni as among Israel's strategic business partners even before the agreements related to Area G [a maritime area adjacent to Gaza's coast]. So we can assume that the Italian company has weight in bilateral relations between the two."

Eni's shady dealings

This isn't the first time that Eni has operated in conflict areas. In northern Mozambique, in Cabo Delgado province, a war is raging between insurgents, the Rwandan and Mozambican military, and mercenaries that have displaced a million people and left thousands dead.

Eni operates in Cabo Delgado province, exporting gas as part of its $7 billion Coral Floating Liquid Natural Gas (LNG) project. It also has a concession for the pending $30 billion Rovuma LNG project. Human rights and environmental groups have linked this violence to the gas industry. 

"We believe that extractivism and particularly fossil-based extractivism draws nourishment from conflicts. Moving people away from extraction sites allows companies to better manage the land, decrease the perception of impacts, nurture local governments, and have the benefit of being defended by them"

Similarly in the Niger Delta in western Nigeria, where Eni has been operating since 1962, the area has been in conflict since the 1990s due to control over oil resources. Militants have attacked Eni pipelines and in 2015 they shut down operations at one of Eni's Nigerian oilfields. 

"The protection of the company's oil assets has even motivated Italian military missions such as Operation Aspides which is involved in the security in the Red Sea area and designates the Mozambique Channel as an "area of strategic national interest" due to the presence of Eni's gas production and liquefaction operations.

"As such, Eni has a significant say in Italy's domestic and foreign policy," says Pippo.

In February 2024, British law firm Foley Hoag sent letters to Eni, along with Dana Petroleum and Ratio Petroleum Energy urging them to "refrain from signing any of the license documents" and "to desist from undertaking any activities in the area of Zone G that Palestine claims such as such activities that would constitute a flagrant violation of international law."

The letter says that 62 percent of Zone G falls within the maritime boundaries declared by the State of Palestine in 2019, following provisions of the 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), of which Palestine is a signatory.

The letters, which represent organisations Al-Haq, Al Mezan Center for Human Rights, and the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights, add that the groups will “pursue all legal means available, including before the United Nations and international media, to bring your company’s complicity with Israel’s illegal actions to the world’s attention."

Eni has not responded to the letter.

Susan Power, Head of Legal Research and Advocacy at Al Haq, tells The New Arab it's still unclear if Italy has been controlling Eni's bidding for leases in Palestinian waters.

However, "Italy must ensure the company undertakes enhanced due diligence in conflict-affected areas under the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights."

Susan adds, "Given the grave breaches of international law, including the appropriation and pillage of the Palestinian people's natural resources, Italy must take immediate and appropriate steps toward accountability."

Mazin Qumsiyeh, Director of the Palestine Institute for Biodiversity and Sustainability at Bethlehem University, is not surprised by the economics behind Israel's assault on Gaza. "Wars are about money," Mazin tells The New Arab. "Always follow the money, it's always about special interests.

"Why Gaza? Before October 7, Israel's blockade [of Gaza] was also tied to the huge gas fields off the coast. Some estimates put the windfall at over $200 billion. The Italians, like the Americans, have their eye on it."

Gaza is also in the way of a new canal for energy transportation between Asia and Europe, explains Mazin. "The canal passes through Gaza, and Israel cannot have 2.3 million Palestinians wanting a share of something."

Pippo agrees that Israel's war is beneficial for Italy’s gas industry. "We believe that extractivism and particularly fossil-based extractivism draws nourishment from conflicts. Moving people away from extraction sites allows companies to better manage the land, decrease the perception of impacts, nurture local governments, and have the benefit of being defended by them."

Ilham Rawoot is a freelance writer based in Cape Town and Berlin. She has previously written for the New Internationalist, Al Jazeera and Africa is a Country, and focuses on climate justice and the extractive industry, Palestine and decolonial struggles. 

Follow her on X: @ilhamsta