Italy's energy champion Eni reports 8.8-billion-euro loss in 2015

Rome (dpa) - Eni, Italy‘s state-controlled oil and gas company, reported Friday an 8.8-billion-euro (9.7-billion-dollar) net loss for 2015, mainly due to the drop in oil prices, but remained optimistic about its prospects and promised dividends to its shareholders.ENI, among the world‘s top 20 energy companies, said it had to downgrade the value of its assets after the per-barrel price of oil fell by 47 per cent to 53 dollars last year. In 2014, it made a profit of 1.3 billion euros.Year-on-year, total revenues dropped from 94.2 billion euros to 68.9 billion euros, and adjusted earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT) from continuing operations fell 64 per cent to 4.1 billion euros. EBIT is a leading indicator of a company‘s health.However, Eni said its oil and gas production rose in the last quarter of 2015 by 14 per cent to 1.88 million barrels of oil equivalent per day, a five-year high, and said it had successfully drilled a new well in Egypt‘s Nile Delta region.The Nooros field was due to increase production from 45,000 to more than 60,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day by mid-2016, Eni said. In Egypt, the company is also developing a huge offshore gas field - the largest in the Mediterranean - due to come on stream in 2017.Chief executive Claudio Descalzi said company results warranted the distribution of a per-share dividend of 0.4 euros to shareholders. On the Milan bourse, Eni‘s stock price was up by more than 5 per cent as of 10:30 am (0930 GMT).