Versalis S.p.A. (Polimeri Europa till 5 April 2012) is a wholly owned subsidiary of Italian oil supermajor Eni specializing in the production of chemicals. With more than 7,000 employees and a production of about 5.6 million tons of chemical products in 2023, it is by far the largest chemical company in Italy and one of the largest in Europe.[1]
History
The history of Versalis dates back to the Enrico Mattei's management era of Eni. In 1953 Mattei obtained full control of Anic, a company specializing in synthetic fuels by coal hydrogenation, and initiated a massive investment program in order to turn it into the chemical and agrichemical arm of Eni. In 1957, following the discovery of substantial natural gas fields off the Adriatic coast, a major fertilizer and petrochemical plant was completed in Ravenna, than in 1960 started producing PVC. Two years later another large plant was set up in Gela, Sicily, close to some offshore oil fields. Other chemical plants were built in Pisticci, Basilicata, where oil was recently found, and Manfredonia, Apulia, for the production of agricultural chemicals. By the time of the 1973 oil crisis