Eni’s Adjusted Profit Doubles to €2.8 Billion as Refining Rebounds
Eni reported adjusted net profit of €2.8 billion for the third quarter on October 23, more than double what the Italian major earned a year earlier, as a sharp rebound in refining margins and continued upstream growth pushed the board to raise its 2026 share buyback and declare an extraordinary dividend on top of the company’s regular payout. Chief executive Claudio Descalzi credited both a stronger refining result and 7% year-on-year growth in oil and gas production for the quarter’s swing.
Refining does the heavy lifting
Eni’s refining business, which lost money in the same period last year, posted proforma adjusted EBIT of €0.73 billion in the third quarter — Eni called it a significant improvement from the year-ago quarter without giving the prior-year refining figure directly. The turnaround tracks a broader rebound in refining margins across Europe this year as supply disruptions tied to sanctions on Russian products and attacks on Middle East infrastructure have tightened diesel and other middle-distillate markets, lifting the premium refiners earn for turning crude into finished fuel.
Upstream keeps growing
Underlying oil and gas production reached 1.83 million barrels of oil equivalent per day in the quarter, up 7% from a year earlier and 2% from the second quarter. Descalzi singled out the figure in his comments, saying the group’s exploration and production division “again delivered outstanding underlying production growth.” Eni confirmed its full-year 2026 gross capital expenditure guidance at €7 billion, with net capex guided below €4.5 billion, implying the company continues to fund a meaningful share of its spending through portfolio sales and partner capital rather than its own cash alone.
Shareholders get more than usual
On top of its already-confirmed 2026 ordinary dividend of €1.10 per share, Eni’s board approved an extraordinary dividend of €0.46 per share — roughly €1.3 billion in total — payable December 9, with shares trading ex-dividend from December 7. The company also raised its 2026 buyback program to €3.8 billion, a 12% increase from the €3.4 billion target set earlier in the year. Descalzi linked the stronger balance sheet partly to “the capital raise and the new governance” at Plenitude, Eni’s renewables and retail energy unit, which has drawn in outside capital over the past two years as the company looks to monetize parts of its lower-carbon business without giving up control.
Part of a wider pattern among European majors
Eni’s results echo a theme playing out across Europe’s integrated oil companies this year, including rivals such as TotalEnergies: refining, which dragged on earnings through much of 2025, has turned into a genuine profit driver as global product markets tightened. Nigeria’s Dangote Refinery closed a $1.6 billion IPO around the same time, underlining how much investor attention refining assets are drawing globally even as the energy transition theoretically points toward less demand for refined products over the long run. For Eni specifically, the combination of a recovering refining arm, steady upstream growth and a Plenitude unit now backed by outside investors gives Descalzi more room to return cash to shareholders than the company had for most of the past two years.
Sources
- Eni, “Eni: results for the third quarter and nine months of 2026,” press release, October 23, 2026 — primary source for all financial figures, guidance and CEO quotes.
- Sweet Crude Reports, “Eni Ups Buyback on Strong Q3 Results; Shares Rise” — independent confirmation of the quarter’s results and market reaction.
Illustrative image. Photo: CEphoto, Uwe Aranas, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons — source
