I think some investors have been surprised by how well prices have held up in Europe. So just your reflections? And also, if you had any thoughts on how European gas demand has evolved, that might be useful, please.
Francesco Gattei: In terms of the confidence of the deals, of the disposal, we are extremely confident. We are working with — already in a number of dossiers that are in advanced stage. We have already, let’s say, we are, in many cases or in a few cases already substantial in final discussions and therefore, we are very, very close. We are working on different, let’s say, terms with other dossier, but for us, in any case, everything is related to the proper value. So, we are not, let’s say, rushing and we are forced to sell because we target a reduction specifically. We want to do good deals. We — I think that we proved in the past years to be extremely effective. And we were also extremely effective in let’s say, concluding the real closing, the actual closing of the deal after the announcement, and this is also will be the case for the coming deals. About the situation of the European fundamental of gas, I’ll give back the floor to Cristian.
Cristian Signoretto: Yes. So, thanks for the question. If you remember, I mean, during our Capital Market Update, we have commented about the fact that we see still a very finely balanced market for Europe, and actually for the world, in the next at least 12 to 18 months. And this actually is the case because, I mean, we are seeing in Asia and especially in China, a pickup in the demand. In the first three months, we have seen 17% of LNG growth in that area in China. And it’s true that demand in Europe has not been very robust because of the weather. But if you look at the fundamentals, we are seeing some pickup in the industrial demand recovery. We have seen also countries like Egypt, as we said before, flipping from being exporter to being importer, and that actually give another, let’s say, story into the balance of the LNG market.
Freeport is out of — is actually — they have two trains out of — for maintenance. So, let’s say, a few million ton of LNG can change, really can change the balance of the market. We, again, we think that the summer will be still volatile because of this situation. Clearly, also the geopolitical situation can add on to that. We know also that there is uncertainty about the end of the Russian transit in Ukraine by the end of this year. So, we feel that the next 12 months could be still interesting and volatile from a market perspective.
Operator: The next question is from Alessandro Pozzi with Mediobanca. Please go ahead.
Alessandro Pozzi: Two questions for me. On Enilive, I noticed that the biorefining throughput has increased materially, well above 90%. And I’m not sure whether that was driven by a redetermination of the effective capacity. But I was wondering if you can maybe give us some color on the increase in throughput there? The second question is on the tax rate and income from associates in the E&P. Clearly, E&P having more equity accounting volumes. And I was wondering whether that will have an effect on the group tax rate? And also overall, whether the income from investments in E&P will be lumpy going forward, whether there will be more quarters or quarters where dividends are going to be richer compared to other quarters? That’s all for me.
Francesco Gattei: I’ll leave the first question to Stefano Ballista that should be on the phone.
Stefano Ballista: Yes, no. The utilization rate got a significant step-up. We are around 94% with Gela and Venice, even a little bit higher. Main reasons are twofold. First, we didn’t get any maintenance, any planned maintenance in this period. And actually, second, we are getting in place our operational excellence program that is step-by-step improving overall operating performance. So, this quarter, we got, I would say, the full results of this effort with pretty much no issue at all. And that’s the level of utilization rate we have in place.
Alessandro Pozzi: What throughput? Or do you expect for the year in terms of utilization rates?
Stefano Ballista: Let’s say, average utilization rate, including planned maintenance, it’s about 85%, 90%. Next quarter is expected to be around 90%, a little bit higher given a low number of planned maintenance.
Francesco Gattei: About the tax rate, the main difference on the tax rate is related to the mix of production countries, gas pricing because this is a versus last year, a major factor of difference more than the contribution from associates, so that this margin is not explaining the tax rate change. In terms of distribution and dividend, we have different distribution policy between — in the various associates, and these are spread relatively steady during the quarters.
Alessandro Pozzi: And in terms of tax rate, at the group level for ’24, should we assume a little bit below 50%?
Francesco Gattei: Yes, clearly related to the price assumption that we are showing.
Operator: The next question is from Biraj Borkhataria with Royal Bank of Canada. Please go ahead.
Biraj Borkhataria: The first one is just a follow-up on Egypt. I was wondering if you could just give a bit more-broader perspective on your activities in the country. Obviously, it’s an important one for Eni. It doesn’t look like the receivable balance has moved this quarter. But could you just talk about whether you are looking to shift your activity levels up or down given the situations ongoing? And then the second question is on divestments and the gross and net CapEx. You’ve talked to the net CapEx figure at the CMD. And I guess there’s two parts of that as the upstream, which I argue, a bit more straightforward, and then there’s a satellite portion with the various transactions that are going on. But when you farm down things like Plenitude, where the new partners are recapitalizing the entity, do you count that as in your divestment targets?
Because I guess from the outside, you don’t actually receive the cash on that front. So, I’m trying to understand how you’re accounting for the various different things that are going on because there’s a lot of corporate transactions you’re planning to do.
Francesco Gattei: First of all, I answer on this. Clearly, once I receive the cash from outside partner in Plenitude, Enilive, consolidated the cash exactly in fully consolidated the debt of the Company. So that is a reduction in our, let’s say, cash imbalance. So, by definition, I will take into account of that. I’m surprised by this kind of comment. In terms of Egypt, I can confirm that the overdue is in line, it was substantially not, let’s say, impacted in the quarter. And I leave the floor to Guido Brusco, the Head of Natural Resources, for the description of the feedback related to the activity in the count.
