Doing business with a 93% tax levy. A case study

The general manager of Energean Italy, Gaetano Annunziata, warns: “Under these conditions, I don’t know if it will be advantageous for shareholders to continue investing in Italy”. It all stems from the double tax on energy extra profits established by the Draghi government and then redesigned by the Budget law

Let’s do the math in the pocket of an oil company: Energean Italy, a subsidiary of the Mediterranean multinational Energean, about fifty concessions between methane and crude oil, a handful of platforms distributed between the Adriatic and the Sicilian Channel, 180 employees, turnover in 2022 close to 500 million. General manager Gaetano Annunziata: “Under these conditions, I don’t know if it will be worthwhile for shareholders to continue investing in Italy”. Between the municipal Imu on the platforms in the middle of the sea, the concession fees, the Ires and Irap taxes, the punitive royalties and above all with the supertax against energy extra profits, the tax levy is about 93 percent of the entire cash flow. I repeat: 93 percent tax burden. At the end of June, Annunziata had to write a check for hundreds of millions made out to Mr. Fisco. How many million in extra profit tax? The director did not want to say it, but these outflows, which had not been budgeted at the beginning of the accounting year, add up to the development costs for ongoing projects: suffice it to say that the minority 40 percent of the Cassiopea field in the Sicilian Channel (majority operator ENI) will cost Energean around 200 million euros in 2023 alone.