By Liam Moloney
Eni SpA (E), Italy's biggest energy company by market value,
made its biggest oil find in recent years as it continues its
string of successes in sub-Saharan Africa and focuses on upstream
activities.
Eni made a "very important" oil and natural gas find in the Nene
Marine exploration prospect in offshore Republic of Congo, said
Claudio Descalzi, who heads the company's exploration and
production division, on a conference call to comment on Eni
second-quarter results.
Eni estimates 600 million barrels of oil and 700 billion cubic
feet of gas are in place.
"The potentiality of this area will increase," added Mr.
Descalzi, although he said it was too early to talk of its
development as Eni needs to further develop appraisal wells.
Eni is focusing in sub-Saharan Africa, where many of the
industry's largest oil and gas discoveries are being made as the
area opens up to exploration, as it faces disruptions in its
traditional strong base of Northern African amid political
instability and disorder, such as in Libya.
In recent years, Eni has made its biggest discovery ever of gas
in offshore Mozambique, representing more than four years of total
European demand.
Eni has boosted its resources base by 950 million barrels of oil
equivalent in the first six months of the year thanks to
exploration discoveries in places such as Ghana and Pakistan.
The Republic of Congo discovery size equals to 717 million
barrels of oil equivalent, or BOE.
According to Andrea Scauri, an analyst with Mediobanca SpA, the
Congo discovery is equal to almost one-fifth of the initial
estimate that Eni gave for Mozambique.
"If this discovery grows anywhere close to the one of Mozambique
then the potential is very big," said Mr. Scauri.
Analysts were also keen to point out that Eni is already working
in the Republic of Congo, where its daily output is 110,000 BOE,
with an existing infrastructure, while in Mozambique everything has
to be built from scratch.
Eni's last big oil discovery was Skrugard/Havis north of the
Arctic circle at the start of last year, which was estimated to
hold recoverable 500 million BOE.
Separately, Eni said second-quarter adjusted net profit was cut
by more than half, a bigger decline than expected, on weak results
from the gas and power division and its oil services subsidiary
Saipem SpA (SPM.MI).
Chief Executive Paolo Scaroni said he expects a "significant"
improvement in second-half results.
The company also said it forecasts 2013 hydrocarbon output in
line with that of last year, while gas sales are predicted to drop
on the year, as are refining throughputs.
Write to Liam Moloney at liam.moloney@wsj.com
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