Gas, green light for the Gemini 1 well: Eni strengthens offshore between Gela and Licata
Transition from exploration to production, expected 1.2 billion cubic metres in eight years
by Nino Amadore
The Strait of Sicily is again at the centre of the national gas game. The Ministry of the Environment and Energy Security approved the variation of the work programme for the G.C1.AG production concession, submitted by Eni Mediterranea Idrocarburi. The measure, published in the Official Bulletin of Hydrocarbons and Georesources in recent days, concerns the Gemini 1 well, in the marine area between Gela and Licata.
This is the transition to the production phase. The decree authorises the conversion of Gemini 1 from an exploratory well to a production well, with the laying of the pipeline and commissioning. The programme includes the completion of the well, the installation of the wellhead and related technical unit, the laying of the flexible connection line and control umbilical, as well as the final pre-commissioning and commissioning activities.
According to some estimates, around 1.2 billion cubic metres of gas are expected from the well in eight years: just under 150 million cubic metres per year. Gemini fits into the groove of Argo-Cassiopea, the major gas project launched by Eni in August 2024 and considered one of the most significant developments in recent years for domestic production. The new well is not being built as an isolated intervention, but as part of a broader system, intended to integrate with the fields already in operation and with the subsea network for transport to land.
Argo-Cassiopea has already built the industrial backbone of Sicilian offshore gas: subsea wells in the Sicilian Channel, a subsea line of about 60 kilometres to the Gela treatment plant, and then feeding into the national grid. For the project, Eni estimates reserves of about 10 billion cubic metres and an annual peak production of 1.5 billion cubic metres.
Within this infrastructure lies Gemini 1. One of the most relevant technical steps concerns precisely the integration with Argo and Cassiopea. In the documentation referred to by the Ministry, Eni claims that the start-up of the new field will not have a negative effect on the production trends of the other fields. On the contrary, the gas coming from Gemini would have a lower water content and would contribute to improving the operating conditions of the shared subsea pipeline, reducing load losses and favouring the overall productivity of the Gela-Licata asset.
