ENI Eni Spa

By Eric Sylvers 

Eni SpA on Friday said it has restarted production at an oil field in southern Italy that a court had forced it to shut down earlier this year, pending an investigation into illegal waste trafficking.

A court in the Basilicata region in the most southern part of mainland Italy ordered the Val d'Agri oil field to be closed in late March, after the arrest of several Eni employees. The probe is continuing and Eni, Italy's largest company by market value, has said it is cooperating with the court and isn't guilty of any wrongdoing.

Restarting the oil field, Eni's most productive in its home market, is crucial for the company, which reported a drop in second-quarter production and revenue, partly due to the shutdown.

Eni, like its competitors, is already struggling to respond to depressed oil prices that have forced asset sales and belt tightening.

Eni Chief Executive Claudio Descalzi had said late last month that he expected production to restart at Val d'Agri by the end of August. The company has used the downtime to carry out maintenance work at the oil field.

Before the shutdown, the site had been producing about 75,000 barrels of oil a day, with most of that going to Eni. Royal Dutch Shell PLC also owns a stake in the field. Eni last year produced about 1.8 million barrels of oil equivalent a day, with 170,000 coming from Italy.

Write to Eric Sylvers at eric.sylvers@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

August 15, 2016 02:48 ET (06:48 GMT)

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