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US Senate eyes penalties for Saipem, Allseas over Nord Stream-2
EU
THE US Senate may vote soon on legislation that would penalise two European companies for their involvement in the Nord Stream-2 nat- ural gas pipeline scheme.
Members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee voted 20-2 on July 31 to approve a bipartisan bill that imposes sanctions on the businesses that are building the link for Gaz- prom, the state-owned Russian gas giant that is leading the Nord Stream-2 project. is clears the way for Mitch McConnell, the Kentucky Republican who serves as the Senate’s majority leader, to decide whether to hold a vote on the legislation.
e dra law calls for penalising the ves- sels used to lay pipe for Nord Stream-2, for denying US travel visas to executives of the companies that operate those vessels and for blocking transactions involving the US-based property and other interests of those compa- nies. Senator Jean Shaheen, a Democrat from New Hampshire, said earlier in the week that these restrictions would apply to only two businesses – Saipem (Italy) and Allseas Group (Switzerland).
As of press time, Saipem and Allseas had not
commented on developments in the US Senate. Shaheen is sponsoring the bill jointly with Ted Cruz, a Republican senator from Texas. Cruz said on July 31 before the committee vote that the legislation was designed to deprive the Russian government of funds that could be used
for “military adventurism and hostility.”
He also alluded to charges that Gazprom is pursuing Nord Stream-2 within the framework of a wider e ort to ensure Europe’s dependence
on Russian gas imports.
“Russia has a bad habit of using energy as a
weapon,” he remarked.
When nished, the Nord Stream-2 pipeline
will run from Narva Bay in northwestern Rus- sia to Greifswald in northeastern Germany. It will have a throughput capacity of 55bn cubic metres per year and will complement the exist- ing Nord Stream system, which began operat- ing in 2011.
Nord Stream-2 is designed to help Gazprom export more gas to Europe, its main export market. But it will also allow the company to reduce its dependence on a Soviet-built transit pipeline through Ukraine. Relations between Moscow and Kyiv are famously tense.™
ITALY’S Eni issued a report on its second-quar- ter results last week that showed steady perfor- mance on the operational side and lower pro ts on the nancial side.
With respect to operations, Eni said in a press release that it had extracted 1.825mn bar- rels of oil equivalent per day (boepd) between April and June of this year.
is meant that the company’s total hydro- carbon production remained more or less steady quarter on quarter, sinking only 0.4% below the gure of 1.832mn boepd reported for the January-March period. But output did fall year on year, dropping by 2% on the gure of 1.863mn boepd reported for the second quarter of 2018.
Eni’s breakdown of production totals showed that the company extracted 867,000 barrels per day (bpd) of liquid hydrocarbons in the second quarter of 2019. is was 2.3% below the rst quarter gure of 887,000 bpd and 1.6% below last year’s second-quarter gure of 881,000 bpd.
e Italian rm also saw natural gas produc- tion average 148.1mn cubic metres (mcm) per
day in the second quarter. is was 1.4% above the rst-quarter gure of 146.02 mcm per day but 2.4% below last year’s second-quarter gure of 151.75 mcm per day.
With respect to nancial performance, Eni reported an adjusted net profit of €562mn between April and June of this year. is was 43.3% below the rst-quarter gure of €992mn and 26.7% down on last year’s second-quarter gure of €767mn.
By contrast, the company’s cash ow from operations surged to €4.515bn in the second quarter. This marked a 115.3% surge on the rst-quarter gure of €2.097bn and was 48.9% above the gure of €3.033bn posted in the sec- ond quarter of 2018.
Eni’s CEO Claudio Descalzi was quoted in the press release as saying that his company had delivered “excellent operating and financial results, making substantial progress towards the achievement of the full-year targets outlined in its industrial plan.” Bloomberg reported, though, that the Italian rm’s nancial results had been weaker than most analysts antici- pated. ™
PERFORMANCE
Eni reports mixed results in Q2-2019
Week 30 01•August•2019 w w w . N E W S B A S E . c o m P7