Versalis (Polimeri Europa till 5 April 2012) is a wholly owned subsidiary of Italian oil supermajor Eni specializing in the production of chemicals.

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.

[2] The oil shocks had devastating effects on the chemical sector in Italy and, as a result, the state asked Eni to purchase the assets of bankrupt private chemical companies, such as SIR ( Società Italiana Resine, a large phenolic resins producer with operations in Porto Torres, Sardinia) and Liquichimica (a producer of citric acid with a big plant in Saline Joniche, Calabria).

[4] In the 1990s Eni, under a heavy debt burden, and plagued with structural problems like a too large number of scattered plants (a legacy of the failed industrialization plans for Southern Italy), with less than optimal size and fixed costs higher than that of its main competitors, was forced to undertook a deep restructuring of Enichem, with enormous economic and social costs: many plants were closed and employment was drastically cut, from 32,963 employees in 1992 to 13,908 in 1999.