The Milazzo Refinery is located on the Northern coast of Sicily, on the West side of Messina Strait and it covers about 524 acres. It came on stream in 1961 and it was operated until 1979 when, after the Iranian oil crisis, it was mothballed. On March 1982, a branch of ENI Group purchased the Refinery and started up the production again. A joint-venture agreement was signed on December 1996 between ENI and Kuwait Petroleum Italia, based on a 50/50 shareholding. Refinery at Milazzo (RAM) is now one of the most complex ad efficient refinery in Europe with a capacity of 10 million tonnes per year.