Eni's chief executive Claudio Descalzi on Wednesday expressed satisfaction with the Italian energy giant's results in January-March, despite lower production and "a substantially unchanged market scenario."
"I am very pleased of the excellent industrial and financial performance delivered by Eni in the first quarter of 2019," Descalzi said in a statement.
"Particularly, in light of a substantially unchanged market scenario, the E&P business has improved its operating profit by 25% compared to the first quarter of 2018, confirming our expectations of the business growing cash generation for the full year," the statement continued.
Overall, first quarter operations generated a cashflow of €3.42billion, up 8% and €1.5billion greater than the investments for the period of around €1.9billion - in line with expectations of €8billion for the whole year, the statement said.
"The Group confirms that it can leverage on the quality and robustness of its asset portfolio, capable of covering costs, investments and dividends at a Brent price of US $55, in addition to generating a cash surplus in the event of higher prices, as in current trading conditions.”
The oil major reported a net profit of 1.02 billion in the first quarter - a 15% increase from the same period of 2017.
Hydrocarbon production was 1.83 million boe/d in the first quarter - a 1.3% drop (net of price and portfolio effects) from the first quarter of last year. The fall in output was mainly due to the termination of the Intisar production contract in Libya from the third quarter of 2018 and "mature fields decline", Eni said.
Eni confirmed its oil and gas production would grow by 2.5 percent in 2019 with Brent at $62 per barrel and net of portfolio transactions.
