Eni SpA (E) Wednesday said first-quarter net profit rose 15% on the
year, lifted by higher crude prices, despite lower hydrocarbon output as it had
to slash Libyan production due to the civil war in the North African country.
Eni said it expects this year's daily hydrocarbon output to be lower than the
1.815 million barrels of oil equivalent of 2010 as a result of the disruption
in
Libya
, its
biggest single contributor.
The "2011 outlook is characterized by a certain degree of uncertainty and
volatility also in light of ongoing political instability and conflict in
Libya
,"
it said in a statement.
Eni, together with BP PLC (BP), today kicked off the first-quarter earnings
season for oil majors amid sharply higher crude prices in the first three
months of the year due to unrest in the
Middle East
and
North
Africa
.
Brent oil price averaged $105.2 in the first quarter of this year, or 37%
higher than the equivalent period in 2010, according to BersteinResearch.
The current high crude prices more than offset the lower production
contribution from
Libya
for
Eni, said Roberto Mascarello, an analyst in
Geneva
with
Kepler Capital Markets.
Italy
's
biggest oil and natural gas company by volume said net profit was EUR2.55
billion compared with EUR2.22 billion in the first three months of 2010.
Eni said adjusted net profit--the income figure closely watched by analysts
because it excludes the often-volatile value of oil inventories--increased 22%
to EUR2.22 billion from EUR1.82 billion a year earlier.
The adjusted net profit figure was ahead of an average forecast of EUR2.06
billion in a Dow Jones Newswires poll of seven analysts.
The results are "positive," wrote Jason Kenney of ING in a note.
At the start of
Libya
's
civil war in mid-February, Eni was the foreign energy company with the biggest
operations in the
North Africa
nation with daily hydrocarbon
output of about 280,000 barrels of oil equivalent. Its current Libyan daily
production is 50,000 to 55,000 BOE.
Last month, Eni said it estimates average annual hydrocarbon output growth at
more than 3% a years in 2011-2014 as it spends EUR53.3 billion in the period. It
then forecast daily output will increase to more than 2.05 million barrels of
oil equivalent in 2014. Its daily average in 2010 was 1.815 million BOE.
Eni's hydrocarbon output for the most recent quarter averaged a
worse-than-expected 1.684 million BOE a day compared with the 1.842 million
posted in the first quarter of 2010. Analysts had projected output of 1.702
million for the first quarter of 2011.
Eni is scheduled to hold a conference call on the results at 1400 GMT,
Wednesday.
The share price is about 1.0% higher over the last three months, roughly in
line with
Italy
's
benchmark FTSE Mib Index.
At 1330
GMT, Eni shares climbed EUR0.34, or 2%, at EUR17.81.