Politicians go after money like vultures after roadkill, so it's no big surprise that politicians the world over are thinking about ways to shake down energy companies and get their hands on all that cash flow ... all in the best interests of their constituents and citizens, of course.
Italian oil major Eni (NYSE:E) might have a little more to lose than most, though. Most of Eni's worldwide reserves are located in places where you probably wouldn't be too keen to vacation. And that makes them highly exposed to country-specific risks -- like the spate of kidnappings in Nigeria -- and the risks, costs, and even shakedowns in production-sharing agreements with these countries.
Lemme put it another way: Growth in Eni's production this quarter was driven in large part by Libya, Angola, and Egypt -- respectively, a former pariah state to the U.S., a former nightmare war-zone, and a country with some emerging fundamentalist problems.
By the same token, Eni is still making a fair bit of money. Sales were up more than 35% this quarter, while adjusted operating profits climbed more than 27%. Cash flow generation was also solid this year, though Eni is no different from any other big oil company in its need to spend a lot more on future capital projects.
Exploration and production work continues to do all of the heavy lifting here. Profits in this unit were up more than 63% as higher production (up more than 7%) and price realizations stayed well ahead of rising production costs. In the refinery business, weak margins thumped profits, and the gas/power business suffered from higher purchasing costs and some regulatory changes.
In the past, I've liked Eni as a better-valued alternative to some of the better-known major oil companies. There are some concerns, though. Reserve replacement is a little iffy (depending on your assumptions about oil prices), and there's that aforementioned risk related to production sharing -- a risk that also affects Total (NYSE:TOT) and Repsol (NYSE:REP), but not so much ConocoPhilips (NYSE:COP) or ExxonMobil (NYSE:XOM). And don't forget political risks at home, too -- there's always the chance that the Italian government could view Eni as a piggy bank and either raise the taxes or sell shares to raise cash.
Still, while I might not love Eni as much as I do Total, there's a good dividend here, and the market already seems to be pricing in the risk situation.
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Fool contributor Stephen Simpson has no financial interest in any stocks mentioned (that means he's neither long nor short the shares).
