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ENI surprises with firm profits

Italian oil major ENI reported unexpectedly strong results for the third quarter on Wednesday, despite a drop in production due to "geopolitical factors" in Nigeria and Libya.

Published: 30 October 2013 12:45 CET

ENI surprises with firm profits

The price of ENI shares rose by 3.37 percent. Photo: Damien Meyer/AFP

The price of shares in the group, known for its logo of a dog with six legs, jumped by 3.37 percent to €18.72. The overall Milan market was up 0.89 percent.

The company said adjusted net profit was €1.17 billion, down 29.4 percent compared to the figure in the same period in 2012.

Financial analysts had expected an adjusted net profit of about €1.0 billion for the quarter. Over a nine-month period, the group's net profit dropped 41 percent to €3.13 billion, the company said in a statement.

ENI said it had made a net gain of €3.0 billion on the sale of its interest in rights in Mozambique to China's CNPC.

However, chief executive Paolo Scaroni said the company had been hit by "difficult market conditions in the European markets of mid and downstream, but also by the extraordinary reductions of production in Nigeria and Libya, and by the appreciation of the euro".

Oil and gas production for the quarter fell 3.8 percent to 1.653 million barrels of oil a day due to "extraordinary reductions in Nigeria and Libya," where production disruptions have significantly affected output.

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NGOs take Norway to European Court over Arctic oil exploration

Northern Norway. Photo by Vidar Nordli-Mathisen on Unsplash.

It’s the latest turn in a legal tussle between environmental organisations Greenpeace and Young Friends of the Earth Norway on one side and the Norwegian state on the other.

The organisations are demanding the government cancel 10 oil exploration licenses in the Barents Sea awarded in 2016, arguing it was unconstitutional.

Referring to the Paris Agreement, which seeks to limit global warming to less than two degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, the organisations claim that the oil licenses violated article 112 of Norway’s constitution, guaranteeing everyone the right to a healthy environment.”

The six activists, alongside Greenpeace Nordic and Young Friends of the Earth Norway, hope that the European Court of Human Rights will hear their case and find that Norway’s oil expansion is in breach of human rights,” Greenpeace said in a statement.

In December, Norway’s Supreme Court rejected the claim brought by the organisations, their third successive legal defeat.

READ MORE: Norway sees oil in its future despite IEA’s warnings

While most of the judges on the court agreed that article 112 could be invoked if the state failed to meet its climate and environmental obligations– they did not think it was applicable in this case.

The court also held that the granting of oil permits was not contrary to the European Convention on Human Rights, in part because they did not represent “a real and immediate risk” to life and physical integrity.

“The young activists and the environmental organisations argue that this judgment was flawed, as it discounted the significance of their environmental constitutional rights and did not take into account an accurate assessment of the consequences of climate change for the coming generations,” Greenpeace said.

On Friday, the Norwegian government unveiled a white paper on the country’s energy future, which still includes oil exploration despite a warning from the International Energy Agency (IEA).

The IEA recently warned that all future fossil fuel projects must be scrapped if the world is to reach net-zero carbon emissions by 2050.

The Norwegian case is an example of a global trend in which climate activists are increasingly turning to courts to pursue their agenda.

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