Rome, 13 May 2026 – ReCommon denounces the potential conflict of interest within the Italian export credit agency SACE, which is about to issue a guarantee for ENI’s Coral North FLNG project in Mozambique despite the fact that the two companies have a member in common on their respective boards of directors, Ms. Cristina Sgubin, who was recently confirmed by ENI’s shareholders’ meeting held behind closed doors on 6 May.
In recent days, the Italian export credit agency announced on its website that it had received «a request for insurance cover for the Coral North Development project, which concerns the construction and operation of a floating facility for the processing, liquefaction, storage and export of natural gas (Floating Liquefied Natural Gas – FLNG)». The floating platform is set to be built off the coast of Cabo Delgado, Mozambique’s northernmost province. For more than nine years, the area has been the scene of an armed conflict between the Mozambique Defence Armed Forces and insurgents.
The infrastructure is effectively a replica of Coral South FLNG, which has been operational and exporting fossil gas (LNG) since November 2022. Should the second platform also be built, the two would end up being just 10 kilometres apart. Regarding Coral South FLNG, in March 2025 ReCommon revealed in its report “Hidden Flames” that the plant had been involved in numerous instances of flaringsince the start of its operations in 2022. This was evident from the analysis of public data and satellite imagery examined by the association and its consultants, data that had not been adequately reported by the oil&gas company. The analyses also fuel the suspicion that the images of the platform on Eni’s corporate website may have been retouched to remove the flames associated with flaringand give it a “green” appearance.
Still on the subject of potential conflicts of interest, the episode of the RAI tv programme Reportbroadcast on 10 May revealed that the San Donato Group’s purchase of a stake in the Polish healthcare sector, amounting to €600 million, was marred by a significant anomaly: it had been guaranteed by SACE, despite the fact that the Vice-President at the time was Ettore Sequi, a senior figure in the foundation headed by Kamel Ghribi, the very “helmsman” of the San Donato Group.
It should also be noted that last March, United Nations experts strongly criticised the $150 million in financial support granted to the Coral North FLNG project by the African Development Bank, pointing out that the project «risks exacerbating human rights harms, contributing to climate change, and diverting scarce public funds away from urgently needed investments in sustainable renewable energy». The experts expressed their belief that the project could indirectly exacerbate the tensions caused by the gas sector in Cabo Delgado province.
«For three years, SACE and the Italian government have continued to flout international commitments, committing €3.97 billion of public money during this period to fossil fuel projects that have nothing to do with Italy’s energy security», commented Simone Ogno of ReCommon. «There is a growing suspicion that the operations of Italy’s main public agency are geared solely towards protecting the profits of multinationals, at the expense of the needs of the community, the environment and the climate. The time has come for the Italian Parliament to put an end to this shambles», concluded Ogno.
