Italian oil giant ENI reported on July 29 a 31 percent fall in net profit for the second quarter to 1.25 billion euros ($1.79 billion) due to the conflict in Libya that has slowed output. Adjusting for certain variations, the group calculated its net income for the quarter at 1.436 billion euros, with a fall of 13.9 percent from the same quarter last year.
This was well below the expected 1.64-billion-euro adjusted net profit expected by analysts surveyed by Dow Jones News wire. Operational profit fell by 11.5 percent in the quarter to 3.81 billion euros, but sales increased by 7.4 percent to 24.596 billion euros, the company said.
Paolo Scaroni, ENI Chief Executive Officer, said the disruption in supply of oil and gas from Libya "affected all of our business activities", but given the context, ENI had delivered "solid results". The conflict in Libya slashed output by 15 percent in the second quarter to 1.489 million barrels a day, the company said. If the war should drag on, ENI warned that total output would fall by 10 percent on the year compared to 2010.