In 2017, the price of oil will continue to rise gradually after the collapse that occurred in the first months of 2016. And since Kashagan a "large cash generation" will come for Eni. This was supported by the CEO of Eni, Claudio Descalzi who, on the sidelines of the conferment ceremony of the Eni Awards 2016, the award established in 2007 with the aim of promoting better use of energy sources and stimulating the new generations of researchers, held today at the Quirinale in the presence of the President of the Republic Sergio Mattarella.
The CEO of the six-legged dog explained that black gold is currently recording “a fluctuating trend, dollar plus dollar minus, but continuously rising; from $33-34 we went up to $50 and this is coupled with the fact that supply has dropped and demand has remained stable so the supply surplus is slowly shrinking. On the other hand – continued the manager – there is OPEC which could intervene and this can accelerate the balance between supply and demand. Then there are the stocks, there is an excess that should be evacuated”.
A step in price growth, according to Descalzi, could arrive between 2018 and 2019 thanks to a shortage of oil due to the reduction in investments.
Descalzi then spoke of the start of production at the Kashagan field in Kazakhstan. It will not have an impact on prices but an important impact for Eni. “Kashagan's speech is already digested in OPEC evaluations. For ENI, on the other hand, much more changes than for OPEC. In two-three-four years we will have a large cash flow".
As far as the 'Eni Award, the Milanese manager underlined how it represents an opportunity for "a free exchange between the company and the academic world to give a concrete signal and a contribution to the great issue of energy transition and thus find common solutions to the challenges we face: providing access to energy, to a growing population and mostly in developing countries and aiming for a low carbon future”.
Descalzi also explained to journalists What's new for next year: “In order to direct research more and more focused on future challenges, we have also adapted the structure of the Eni Awards, which from the next edition will no longer be based on business areas but will focus more on aspects of the energy transition and new frontiers of energy, with focus on renewables and access to energy in developing countries“. Another change will instead concern the attention towards the African continent which will be revealed through the introduction of an award "Young talents of Africa", reserved for graduates of African universities who have presented projects in the energy and environmental fields applicable in the countries of 'origin.
Speaking instead of2016 edition, a year in which over 850 nominations were received, the New Frontiers of Hydrocarbons Award, Downstream section, was assigned to Johannes Lercher, of the Technische Universitat Munchen, for the research 'New catalytic strategies for the synthesis of alkenes and alkanols'. In the Upstream section the acknowledgment went to Christopher Ballentine of the University of Oxford, with the research 'New tracers for the study of transformations and movements of fluids in the subsoil', ex aequo with Emiliano Mutti of the University of Parma, with the research “Deep sea sedimentation: geometry and characteristics of turbiditic and conturitic reservoir facies”.
The Environmental Protection Prize was awarded to David Milstein, of the Weizmann Institute of Science (Israel), for the research "Innovative, efficient and environmentally compatible catalytic reactions, alternatives to current polluting processes".
A Federico Bella of the Turin Polytechnic, for the PhD thesis "Polymers designed by light for new generation solar cells" which studied third generation solar cells, and to Alessandra Menafoglio of the Politecnico di Milano, for the PhD thesis "Object-Oriented Geostatistics" was awarded the Debut in Research Award. The Eni Awards were presented at the same time as the Eni Innovation Awards given to three internal research teams.
During the ceremony, Claudio Descalzi emphasized the importance of research and technological development have in Eni's business. Both factors “are at the basis of our industrial growth, of our successes in many of the technological domains that characterize our businesses and also at the basis of the motivation of our people. Commitment to cutting-edge research has allowed us and still allows us to have a competitive advantage in a field such as energy where it has become increasingly complex to discover and develop the resources necessary for growth at sustainable costs and prices”.
It is no coincidence that Eni has a portfolio of over 1,5 billion euro having invested in technological innovation in 7 years, with particular attention to the "core areas of exploration, drilling and field management, in the downstream sector and renewable energies".
On the sidelines of the ceremony, the CEO of the six-legged dog also gave his opinion on constitutional referendum of next 4 November: “We read the referendum as the law of Confindustria which has expressed itself clearly. It is logical to think that we need to streamline our system. If we talk about 4.0, to make industry we need to streamline also from the point of view of rules and laws”.
“In a country – concluded the CEO – not only do we need to invest but we need to be able to safely invest in timescales and streamlined processes. This referendum brings reforms. Foreign investors are worried that we won't be able to reform and they don't believe that the Italian system can grow if we don't reform
