The first-quarter profit of the group, known for its logo of a dog with six legs, fell to €1.19 billion from €1.39 billion a year earlier, in line with expectations of analysts polled by Dow Jones Newswires.

"Eni delivered solid results in the first quarter 2014, despite a difficult market environment" including "continued volatility in Libya and weakness in European demand," oil and gas chief Paolo Scaroni said in a statement.

"The outlook for 2014 is in line with our expectations", despite "weak conditions" in Europe "where we do not anticipate any meaningful improvement in demand, while competition, excess supplies and overcapacity will continue to weigh on selling margins of energy commodities."

Production was up 0.6 percent to 1.583 million barrels of oil a day thanks to a rise in demand from Algeria and Britain, which helped offset reduced production in Libya, Eni said.

Gas sales dropped 11.3 percent to 26.76 billion cubic metres due to "competitive pressure and oversupplies as well as unusual weather conditions," it said.

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