Nonostante il brusco calo del cash flow operativo in questa prima metà del 2009 Total e Eni continuano a dare priorità agli investimenti per non compromettere la crescita futura della produzione, anche a scapito del dividendo. Per ora i piani di investimento subiscono solo lievi revisioni.
La produzione soffre nel secondo trimestre a causa dei tagli OPEC e della diminuizione dei consumi.
WRAPUP 2-Total, Eni trim spending outlook as profits slump
* Total net profit down 54 pct, Eni's falls 60 pct
* Eni trims interim dividend, Total keeps payout unchanged
* Eni sees "slight decline" in 14 bln eur 2009 spending
* Total says to be "in line or below" $18 bln FY capex goal
* Eni shares fall 6.5 pct, Total down 3.3 pct
(Adds analyst reaction, production details)
By Marcel Michelson and Danilo Masoni
PARIS/MILAN, July 31 (Reuters) - Total (
TOTF.PA) and Eni (
ENI.MI) kept a tight rein on dividends and warned they might trim investment spending as they joined a string of oil majors reporting sharply lower profits and falling output.
The French and Italian groups pledged to keep investing to find and produce new resources, but said they might not spend as much as they had previously budgeted as the industry grapples with weak energy demand, excess capacity and lower oil prices.
On Thursday, Royal Dutch Shell (
RDSa.L) said it would tackle the tough trading environment with billions of dollars of cost savings, but said it could keep growing its dividend, while Spain's Repsol (
REP.MC) unveiled plans to slash 2009 spending by over 10 percent.
Total, the world's fourth-biggest non government-owned oil group, said on Friday it would be "in line or below" an $18 billion investment goal for 2009 as the group reported a 54 percent drop in underlying net profit to 1.72 billion euros.
It kept its payout to shareholders flat, with an interim dividend of 1.14 euros per share and said it was fully focused on cost-cutting efforts.
Eni, 30 percent owned by the Italian state, cut its half-year dividend to 0.5 euro per share from last year's 0.65 euros, disappointing investors who pushed ENI shares 6.33 percent lower to 16.58 euros by 1111 GMT.
"Dividend expectations were still high, and this is why we sell (Enel shares). It is sure it (full-year dividend) will not reach 1.30 euros per share," said an analyst with an investment bank in Milan, who asked not to be named.
Chief Executive Paolo Scaroni said a decision on the 2009 dividend would not be taken before February, but said if it repeated the first-half profit performance in the second half it would "very likely" mean a repeat of the interim dividend.
Scaroni also said Eni would continue to invest as planned but that there would be a slight decline in 2009 investments to 14 billion euros compared with 2008.
"Our major target is to grow, and we want to continue to invest," he said in response to a question on whether Eni was trimming its dividend to build a "war chest", which he denied.
Eni said it had achieved savings of 1.2 billion euros by the end of June as the Italian group reported a 60 percent drop in adjusted second-quarter net profit to 902 million euros.
Investors are increasingly concerned about weak cash flows at oil majors, which pushed up debt levels, dealers have said, but any cut in investment, though a short-term positive for shareholders, could prove counterproductive further down the line.
FALLING PRODUCTION
After a peak of $147 a barrel in July 2008, oil prices have been hit by falling consumption due to the global economic crisis, and though they have nearly doubled since a January trough to just under $67/bbl on Friday, industry leaders are downbeat on energy demand this year.
Total shares were down 2.84 percent at 38.86 euros, in a European oil and gas .SXEP sector down 1.9 percent, with traders citing a disappointing earnings and production update as well as moves by investors switching out of the energy sector.
"Production was very weak ... leaving questions surrounding the purported growth of the company," said an analyst who declined to be named.
Oil and gas production fell for both Total and Eni in the second quarter, mainly due to OPEC cuts and other stoppages.
The French group reported a 7.3 percent year-on-year drop in second-quarter output to 2.18 million barrels of oil equivalent per day (boepd), while Eni's fell 2.2 percent to 1.73 million.
Eni would have to work hard to achieve its target of a 2 percent growth in 2009 oil and gas production. Analysts had expected Eni to keep its output steady after having lowered its target from 3 percent earlier this year.
"It ... will require an effort in the second half because there has not been this growth at the end of June," Scaroni said.
In 2008, Total stopped giving medium-term production targets after gradually trimming its goal to an increase of about 3 percent in oil and gas production between 2006 and 2010. (Additional reporting by Stephen Jewkes and Giancarlo Navach in Milan, writing by Tiziana Barghini; Editing by Marie Maitre/Will Waterman)
