MOSCOW (MRC) -- Italian company Eni saw profits drop during the first half of the year as lower oil prices and production hit revenue, said Upstreamonline.
Eni posted a net profit of EUR1.8 billion (USD2.4 billion) for the first half of the year, down 52.7% on the EUR3.8 billion booked during the first six months of 2012.
The fall in profits came as sales sank 6.2% to just under EUR59.3 billion, compared to the EUR63.2 billion booked during the same period a year a go.
Affecting Eni's results was a lower contribution from the company's exploration and production division where sales dropped 12.7% to EUR15.6 billion.
This came as the company achieved an average of USD70.33 per barrel of oil equivalent during the first half of 2013, down 6.4% on the USD75.10 per boe booked during the first half of last year.
The fall in prices was compounded by a 2.7% drop in output during the six month period to an average of 1.62 million barrels of oil equivalent per day, compared to nearly 1.67 million boepd a year ago.
Eni attributed a 3.4% fall in liquids production to to lower output in Nigeria, planned facility downtimes, as well as mature field declines.
It also claimed lower output in Nigeria and mature field declines was largely behind the 2.4% fall in natural gas production during the first half of the year.
These factors leading to the fall in output were partly offset by the start-up and ramp-up of of projects in Russia,Egypt Algeria and Angola, as well as higher liquids production from its operations in Iraq.
As MRC wrote before, Eni has announced its plans to undertake a renovation and recovery project at the Gela refinery located on the southern coast of Sicily in Italy. The nearly EUR700m project is aimed at upgrading the heavy crude processing facility environmentally friendly and competitive to meet the challenges of the market.
Eni S.p.A. is an Italian multinational oil and gas company, present in 79 countries, and currently Italy's largest industrial company with a market capitalization of 87,7 billion euros (USD138 billion), as of July 24, 2008.The Italian government owns a 30.3% golden share in the company, 3.93% held through the state Treasury and 26.37% held through the Cassa depositi e prestiti. Another 2.29% of the shares are held by BNP Paribas group.
MRC