# Erg (company)

Erg S.p.A., acronym for Edoardo Raffinerie Garrone, is an Italian energy company, founded in 1938, and based in Genoa, Italy.

## History

Erg was founded by Edoardo Guida Garrone in 1938, founding a company for the refining of petroleum. In 1952, Erg signs an agreement to refine the oil on behalf of BP.
During the 1960s and 1970s the company started to build some oil refineries and pipelines in Italy, particularly a pipeline in Arquata Scrivia and an oil refinery in Priolo Gargallo (ISAB).
In the 1980s Erg acquired the petrol stations networks owned by Elf, Chevron and BP in Italy, through Erg Petroli.
Since 1997 the company is listed on the Italian Stock Exchange. In 1999 it opened gas, (petrol), stations network in Spain through Erg Petroleos, sold in 2008 to Saras S.p.A.
In 2007 Erg started to operate in the French and German wind markets, acquiring wind farms also in Bulgaria, Romania, Polonia and United Kingdom.
In 2008 it signed an agreement with Lukoil, sharing the 49% of oil refinery in Priolo Gargallo.
In 2009 it launched its own Mobile Virtual Network Operator: Erg Mobile, becoming the first Italian oil company with its own telecommunications company.
On 1 October 2010, Total Italia and Erg Petroli merged to create TotalErg, a joint venture between Total (49%) and Erg (51%).
In early 2011 Erg reduced its share in ISAB from 51% to 40%. Two years later Erg completed the exit from the refining sector.
In the meantime (since 2010) Erg grew in the Italian wind power sector becoming the leading wind operator in Italy in 2013.
In 2015 Erg entered the hydroelectric sector, via acquisition of E.ON's Italian assets, with 527 MW of capacity.
In January 2018, Total and Erg completed the closing with Gruppo API regarding the sale of TotalErg, and Erg completed its industrial transformation process towards renewables. In the same year, Erg entered the solar power business through the acquisition of 89 MW (30 photovoltaic plants) in Italy.

## Profile

Following a period of profound transformation (sale of the ISAB refinery and of the ISAB Energy power station, creation and sale of the TotalErg joint venture and the sale of the Erg Oil Sicilia network), Erg group is now the leading operator in wind energy in Italy and is currently among the top ten in Europe (onshore). It also owns a combined cycle power plant (Erg Power, 480 MW) in Priolo Gargallo in Sicily and in 2015 purchased the Terni (527 MW) hydroelectric unit from EON Produzione. Erg is also active in Italy in the generation of electricity from solar sources (140 MW).
Erg is present with 359 MW in France, 272 MW in Germany, in Romania (70 MW) and in Bulgaria (54 MW).
With regard to sustainability issues, in October 2022, Standard Ethics Aei upgraded Erg's sustainability rating to "E+" with a positive outlook on a scale of F to EEE within the SE European Utilities Index.

### Erg Mobile

Erg Mobile was an Italian Mobile Virtual Network Operator owned by the oil company Erg, later TotalErg.
Operational since 15 April 2009, it was the result of a commercial agreement between Erg and Vodafone (the service, launched as ESP MVNO, in fact uses the GSM/GPRS/UMTS network of the British company).
The Erg Mobile service was available for subscription, from April 2010, throughout the entire Erg, then TotalErg, distribution network.
The area code used was 377-5.
The main feature of Erg Mobile was the ambivalent one of giving advantages on fuel to those who use Erg Mobile and on top-ups to those who get fuel at service stations.
On 10 January 2018, the sale of the TotalErg business unit relating to fuels to Gruppo API was completed and on 30 November 2018, after months of uncertainties and disservices in the provision of new SIMs, the operator, via an SMS, notified its customers of the cessation of all activities starting from March 30, 2019.

## Sponsorship

Erg was the main sponsor of U.C. Sampdoria (until 2011), a football club that was owned by the Garrone family (Riccardo Garrone was the chairman, with Edoardo as the vice-chairman, and Vittorio as director), for more than 9 years.