Italian energy giant and LNG player Eni on Wednesday reported a first-quarter profit of 744 million euros ($810 million), the best quarterly profit in two years, as oil and gas prices rose.
This is the company’s second quarterly profit in the last two years as Eni, like its larger peers, benefited from a surge in the price of crude oil.
In the quarter under review, Eni generated 1.93 billion euros in cash, up from $1.37 billion in the first quarter last year.
The Italian company confirmed production would grow by 5 percent this year to 1.84 million barrels of oil equivalent per day (boed).
Eni’s Chief Executive Claudio Descalzi said that the company’s flagship upstream projects, such as Jangkrik in Indonesia and OCTP in Ghana, were all about to come on stream, while Zohr in Egypt was progressing ahead of schedule.
“All this makes me confident about the full year budget production guidance. The disposal of assets in Egypt and Mozambique, which are expected to close before the end of the year, will contribute to a further strengthening of the group’s financial position while maintaining future growth prospects,” he said.
“We expect that in 2017 organic cash generation, coupled with proceeds from disposals, will allow us to fully fund our capex and dividend requirements at an oil price well below the current level,” Descalzi added.