• Use of the best drilling and well diameter reduction technologies, pressure management, blow out preventers and robotic systems for the prevention and containment of oil spills;
• The involvement of local indigenous peoples, including informing them, protecting their activities and making use of their skills for the management of emergencies (for example the use of fishing vessels for the containment of any oil spills);
• The adoption of technologies and criteria for the assessment and management of environmental and social impacts based on experience gained from joint venture operations in the Arctic.

In order to better understand and respond to the environmental sensibilities of the Arctic zone eni has consulted the NGOs most closely concerned with the issue.

Non conventional resources>

eni recognizes that further growth in the oil & gas sector is also linked to the development of non-conventional resources. Currently eni is directly involved in exploration operations related to shale gas in Europe and Asia and has a production quota linked to its participation in the shale gas operations in Texas in the Quicksilver Alliance development (eni share 27.5%) and in Indonesia for the extraction of natural gas from coal seams (Coal Bed Methane - CBM). eni is taking advantage of the skills gained in the USA and has adopted a new operating model aimed at ensuring sustainable development, both in economic and environmental terms, through compliance with the highest operating standards and practices recognized at the international level, the use of cutting edge technologies and new industrial processes. eni is also currently conducting a programme of research into shale gas and shale oil, investigating the new technologies of waterless fracturing and modelling the physical phenomena that have the greatest influence on the fluid properties and flow phenomena in the shale.