Operator
Operator
Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to Eni's 2015 Fourth Quarter and Full-Year Results Conference Call hosted by Claudio Descalzi, Chief Executive Officer; and Massimo Mondazzi, Chief Financial and Risk Management Officer. For the duration of the call, you will be in listen-only mode. However, at the end of the call, you have the opportunity to ask questions. I'm now handing you over to your host to begin today's conference. Thank you. Claudio Descalzi - Chief Executive Officer, Director & GM: Good afternoon and welcome to our fourth quarter and full-year results presentation. In 2015, we successfully delivered important milestones of our strategy, exceeding all our main targets for the year. In the upstream, we had a highest production growth rate among peers. We replaced 148% of produced volumes. And confirm all our standing exploration track record. In the mid-downstream, we accelerated the turnaround of all our businesses. Gas & Power is close to breakeven, confirming that we are on track to hit full-year plan targets. R&M is both EBIT and cash flow positive. Refining as a standalone has achieved EBIT breakeven two years higher than plan, thanks to the reduction of our breakeven margin to about $5 per barrel. A major milestone of 2015 has been the dilution of the Saipem stake and the related debt repayment an operation that has been completed this week. This together with a total exit from Snam and Galp and the ongoing negotiation aimed at reducing our ownership in the chemical sector confirms Eni's transformation strategy to an oil and gas company. Finally, efficiency program, which we started well ahead of the decline in prices, delivered better than expected results. CapEx was reduced by 17%, against the original guidance of 14%; OpEx by 13%, against the planned 7%; and G&A cost savings amounted to €600 million versus the guidance of €500 million. All these results led us to reduce our organic coverage of CapEx to $50 per barrel in 2015 versus the $63 per barrel anticipated in our 2016-2018 strategic plan. Due to the deconsolidation of Saipem's debt and our operating cash generation, we managed to cap the leverage to 22%, the lowest value in the last 10 years. Let's now focus on cash, the most important target in a downturn cycle. With an operating cash flow of €12.2 billion, we managed to keep our cash generation only 15% lower than in 2014, despite the 50% decline in the oil price. This cash performance coupled with a reduction of CapEx to €11 billion generated a net cash flow of €1.2 billion. Along with the disposals, this substantially covers our cash needs including dividends. Compared to 2014, we offset almost two-thirds of the scenario impact by increasing cash generation, thanks to production growth in E&P, operating cost savings, exposure to Production Sharing Contract, better performance in downstream segment, and further improvement of working capital. And now, we will give you additional details and guidance for 2016 on the main factors that underpinned these dynamics: production growth and cost efficiencies. In production, we grew 10% in 2015, doubling the initial target, thanks to the flexibility of our portfolio, we brought forward to 2015 part of the production growth that we planned in the four-year plan. This performance was due to 10 main startups in West Africa, the Americas, Italy, and the North Sea; the fast tracking of near-field discovery in Egypt; the contribution of Libyan gas field; the one-off contribution from Iran and Libyan cost recoveries that account for 42,000 barrels per day; and PSA effect that account for 3.8% of this growth For 2016, we will maintain the same production level as last year, excluding the contribution of one-off factors. The key startups will be Goliat, Kashagan, and other main fields in Angola, Egypt, and Gulf of Mexico. Let's now turn to cost. On CapEx, in 2015, we achieved a reduction of 17%, thanks to the large optionality of our portfolio. We re-phased more expensive and longer-term projects in favor of the development of near-field exploration successes, and we leveraged the renegotiation of rates (6:04) of services, reducing the total cost by €500 million. In 2016, leverage in the same drivers will further reduce CapEx by 20% versus the last year, even including Zohr, which is set to become a major contributor of additional production to the four-year plan, replacing longer-term development. After two years of strict spending control and thanks to our focus on conventional and low-cost play, we have materially reinforced the resilience and competitiveness of our upstream portfolio, while preserving our profitable growth targets. Upstream investing for barrels produced remains at the lowest level of our peer growth and this will be further reduced by 43% by the end of this year, versus 2014's level, to $14 per barrel. Moving now to operating costs, there in 2015 we reduced OpEx to $7.2 per barrel, down by 13%, doubling the original target. Contract revisions, optimization of maintenance, lower energy feedstock prices, and logistic costs are at the basis of these savings. In 2016, we plan to further improve and deliver an OpEx per barrel down to $6.4 per barrel, 23% lower than in 2014. Our commitment to cost efficiency has also strongly impacted on G&A costs. In this area, we beat July 2014's target of €500 million of savings by 20%, main reduction had come from communication, logistics and ICP (8:09). These savings will be confirmed in the four-year plan. And finally, I would like to highlight, how we will continue to fuel our future. Last year, we discovered 1.4 billion barrels, two-thirds of the 2016-2018 plan target at the unit cost of $0.70 per barrel. We achieved these results through a very well balanced exploration activity that focused on specific targets, limiting our investment to €800 million. These resources which were mainly discovered in North and Sub-Saharan Africa are highly synergic with existing production ops. Thanks to these discoveries, we will maximize the opportunity of our portfolio through the optimization of the development plan and the potential disposal of stakes where we have a high participating interest. In terms of reserves replacement, we achieved a ratio of 148%, with around seven billion barrels of entirely conventional proven reserves. We have kept our reserves life index at around 11-years. This result does not take into account the contributions of Zohr and Coral, which will be sanctioned in 2016. And now, Massimo will give you the highlight of 2015 economic and financial results. Massimo Mondazzi - Chief Financial & Risk Management Officer: Thank you, Claudio. First of all, let me remark that the pro forma group figures exclude Saipem and Versalis contribution as they've been reclassified as available for sales. By the effect of the Saipem transaction now closed, by the way this morning we cashed in the latest part of euro proceeds – are in this representation anticipated at December 31, 2015. Anyway, in the press release, you can find all detailed information to reconcile the reported versus the pro forma figures. Passing now to the numbers, adjusted operating profit in 2015 was €4.1 billion, down 64% versus last year. The deterioration of scenario estimated at €8.8 billion and some 2014 retroactive benefits in Gas & Power of €0.7 billion, were partially offset by €2.2 billion of positive performance, mainly volume growth and increased operating efficiency and flexibility. In detail, upstream accounted for the vast majority of this result, with an EBIT of €4.1 billion. This was actually a strong performance pulled by a higher production and lower OpEx and exploration cost counteracting a very negative scenario that weighted minus €9 billion. Gas & Power was close to breakeven; notwithstanding, the worse than expected outcome of one commercial arbitration. Yet, this result is in line with our guidance of being close to breakeven, despite the delay of the GasTerra arbitration now expected by the second quarter of this year. Excluding the positive contribution in 2014, our retroactive effects implied in some gas renegotiation, 2015 results were much better than the previous year, thanks to the rollover of revised gas contracts including one-off items. R&M recorded strong year with EBIT adjusted improvement of around €450 million over 2014. Refining breakeven was achieved, thanks to better scenario and refining optimization. Adjusted net income in 2015 was €336 million, down 91% versus 2014. It was affected by 92% tax rate, mainly driven by the larger weight of some trends, namely PSA effect in E&P that recorded an 81% tax rate. PSA are, in fact, much more resilient in economic terms than concessions, but with higher tax rate. Second, the overall group losses of other sectors, mainly in Italy, with no deferred tax asset associated. And third, non-deductible costs such as exploration that in 2015 represented a higher percentage of the depressed pre-tax profit. On the latter effect, it's worth saying that the adoption of (12:57) would reduce the E&P tax rate by five percentage points. This, combined with normalization of non-deductible costs I mentioned before, would reduce E&P tax rate to around 70%. Finally, to complete my comments about taxes, let me highlight that from a cash perspective, in 2015 we paid E&P a cash tax rate of around 34%, slightly lower than in 2014. And now, I would like to highlight that these days, we completed the Saipem deal and we are now cashing-in the full proceeds. The deal, you might remember, was composed of three main steps. First, the sale of 12.5% of Saipem to the Italian Strategic Fund occurred at 22 January, 2016, which implied a cash-in of €463 million. With the sale, we entered in a 50-50 shareholder agreement with FSI, represented 25% combined shareholding. Second, we reported a (14:10) subscription of Saipem capital increase for slightly more than €1 billion. And third, the full repayment of Saipem inter-company net debt amounting to €5.4 billion. As a result, the net debt reduction has been €4.8 billion. Saipem will be equity accounted for Eni starting from January 2016. And now, I will like to stress our positive financial performance. Pro forma net debt at the year-end was down to €11.7 billion, implying a leverage at 22%. This significant improvement versus 2014, in spite of the challenging scenario, was achieved mainly; thanks to the resilient contribution from operations sourced by lower cost PSA as well as further improvement of working capital. It's worth mentioning that the working capital contribution is partially due to non-recurring action amounting to €2.2 billion, €1.6 billion more than 2014, benefiting from take-or-pay recovery, cash-in of fiscal credits, recovery of commercial overdue and liquids de-stocking. Second, the Saipem transaction, I just commented, entered a €2.1 billion of cash from disposals, including the proceed from Galp and Snam. The later only partially cashed-in in 2015, as well as from the sale of non-strategic upstream and R&M assets. And now I will hand you over to Claudio for his final remarks. Claudio Descalzi - Chief Executive Officer, Director & GM: Thank you, Massimo. 2015 was a crucial year for the implementation of our transformation plan. Eni is now more focused on core business and more resilient to deal with the lower oil price environment. In summary, we beat all our main targets and lowered our cash breakeven. And now, we have a (16:17) company with a higher degree of optionality and positioned to overcome a longer downturn. In 2016, we will maintain our current production level without the contribution of one-off factors recorded for last year. We will further reduce CapEx by 20%, and OpEx by 11%. And concerning the organic coverage of CapEx at $50 per barrel, without the contribution of the working capital recovery that we had in 2015. On the basis of these results, I am pleased to announce that the 2015 final dividend proposal is confirmed to €0.40 per share. Now together with the management team, we will be happy to answer your questions. Thank you.