Eni expects its production in 2020 to come down to 1.8-1.84 million barrels of oil equivalent per day
Eni headquarters in Rome, Italy. (Credit: Paolo Monti/Wikipedia.org)
Italian energy company Eni said that it will slash its capital expenditure (capex) in 2020 by 25% or nearly €2bn owing to decreasing commodities prices and the prevailing coronavirus pandemic.
The oil and gas company will also bring down its 2020 operational expenditure (opex) by nearly €400m.
Furthermore, the company will implement a 30-35% reduction in capex for next year, which comes to nearly €2.5-3bn.
Eni said that the reduced capex and opex will be implemented mainly to its upstream operations, and in particular to production optimisation activities and new projects developments that are slated to begin in the short term.
The Italian oil and gas firm said that for both cases, it will restart activities as soon as appropriate market conditions appear. Related production of the activities will be recovered accordingly, said the company.
Due to the measures and the current scenario, the company expects its production in 2020 to be between 1.8 and 1.84 million barrels of oil equivalent per day. In 2021, the company anticipates its production to continue to be in the same range.
Eni CEO Claudio Descalzi said: “We are taking these actions in order to defend our robust balance sheet and the dividend while maintaining the highest standards of safety at work.”
Earlier this week, the Italian energy company has launched a review of its Middle East projects due to the coronavirus crisis and the dismal oil prices.
The company’s portfolio in the Middle East includes upstream and downstream activities across Bahrain, Oman, Lebanon, and the UAE. The projects to come under the review include those involved in partnership with ADNOC, reported Reuters.
The Italian firm is partnering ADNOC in the Ghasha sour gas field offshore Abu Dhabi in which it was awarded a 25% stake in November 2018.