Descalzi secures record fifth term at helm of Italy's Eni

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By Francesca Landini and Giuseppe Fonte

ROME/MILAN, April 10 (Reuters) - Italy's Treasury has proposed the reappointment of Claudio Descalzi for a fifth term as CEO of state-controlled energy group Eni, it said late on Thursday, cementing his position as the longest serving CEO of a Western-listed oil major.

His new stint at Eni ENI.MI will start in May after his nomination is approved at the group's shareholders meeting, where the Italian government calls the shots.

Descalzi, 71, has built a career in the Italian energy group as an upstream and exploration expert with a focus on Africa.

No other CEO among Western-listed oil majors has been in charge longer than Descalzi, who has led Eni since May 2014, though TotalEnergies' TTEF.PA Patrick Pouyanne, who became CEO in October 2014, is not far behind.

By contrast, at European rival BP BP.L Meg O'Neill this month became the fifth CEO in six years.

However, shares in Eni have underperformed those of TotalEnergies, Exxon XOM.N, Chevron CVX.N and Shell SHEL.L since Descalzi took office.

Eni has also faced strong and repeated criticism from environmental groups, including Greenpeace and ReCommon, over its involvement in fossil fuels and their contribution to global warming, which they say causes damage both now and in the future.

"Continuity in Eni's management represents a positive factor given the complex geopolitical context and the strong track record," said Italian broker Equita, citing among Descalzi's achievements the strengthening of the group's upstream business, a pragmatic approach to decarbonisation and setting up new businesses.

Under Descalzi, Eni pushed for parts of the business to be spun off into joint ventures and separate firms, for example its Norwegian business into Vaar VAR.OL, some of its African units into Azule and its renewables business into Plenitude.

He then opened up these ventures to industrial partners and investment firms, allowing Eni to offload some of the financial effort needed to develop them onto deep-pocketed partners.

Descalzi, alongside Eni and Shell SHEL.L and some of their former and current executives, faced a trial for alleged corruption regarding a deep-water Nigerian oil field known as OPL 245 but all were acquitted in 2021, having denied all wrongdoing.

Among the new projects Eni is working on is a joint venture in the Far East with Malaysia's Petronas and the launch of a liquefied natural gas project in Argentina.

(Additional reporting by Shadia Nasralla in London, editing by Christina Fincher)

((gavin.jones@thomsonreuters.com; +39 06 8522 4232;))