Italian oil and gas company Eni has released its 2018 results: hydrocarbon production rose by 2.5% in 2018 to 1.85 mboe/d, driven by the addition of more than 300 kboe/d of production ramp-ups at several giant projects including Zohr and Nooros in Egypt, Jangkrik (Indonesia), OCTP Oil (Ghana), East Hub (Angola) and Nenè Phase 2 (Congo). The increased production at the Kashagan field (Kazakhstan) and the achievement of five start-up operations planned for 2018 also contributed to this increase. Eni managed to raise its proven hydrocarbon reserves to 7.2 Gboe throughout the year and made final investment decisions (FIDs) for six projects, sanctioning the development of 2.1 Gboe.
Eni's gas and power business unit achieved its highest ever operating profit since the spin-off of regulated transport and distribution activities, due to the restructuring of long-term gas supply contracts, LNG operations growth and optimizations in the power business. LNG contracted volumes rose by 70% to 8.8 Mt/year in 2018, of which more than half were sold on the Asian markets. Eni's retail business achieved a customer base of 9.2 million, which is 6% more than in 2017. Most of them are located across Europe, in particular in Italy along with central and eastern European countries.
In 2018, the company also strengthened its presence in the refining sector and agreed to purchase a 20% interest in the ADNOC Refining company, which owns the refining complexes of Ruwais and Abu Dhabi with an overall capacity of more than 920,000 bbl/d.