Eni Swung to 4Q Profit Boosted by Higher Oil, Gas Prices--Update

   By Giulia Petroni and Cristina Roca 
 

Eni SpA said Friday that it swung to a profit in the fourth quarter of last year on soaring oil-and-gas prices, and backed its dividend proposal.

The Italian oil-and-gas major booked a quarterly net profit of 3.82 billion euros ($4.34 billion) compared with a loss of EUR797 million for the year-earlier period. On an adjusted basis, net profit rose to EUR2.11 billion, due to strengthening market trends and production growth.

Hydrocarbon production for the quarter inched up to 1.74 million barrels of oil equivalent a day from 1.71 million boe/d a year earlier.

Quarterly sales more-than doubled to EUR26.76 billion from EUR11.63 billion a year earlier. Cash flow from operations soared to EUR4.6 billion in the quarter, allowing the company to cover EUR1.8 billion of net capital expenditure.

For the full year, the company said it posted its best yearly results since 2012 as it swung to a EUR6.13-billion net profit from a loss of EUR8.64 billion in 2020 and had sales jump 74% to EUR76.57 billion.

"We delivered excellent results and accelerated the pace of our transformation strategy," Chief Executive Officer Claudio Descalzi said. "On the one hand, our upstream segment has kept generating the financial resources needed to fund our decarbonization strategy while, on the other, the new energy transition businesses have performed strongly," Mr. Descalzi said.

Eni backed its dividend proposal of EUR0.86 a share for 2021 and said it will disclose guidance at its capital markets day on March 18.

Write to Giulia Petroni at [e-mail] and Cristina Roca at [e-mail]

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

February 18, 2022 03:48 ET (08:48 GMT)

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