OSLO/LONDON, Feb 8 (Reuters) – Equinor posted a document $74.9 billion adjusted working revenue on Wednesday, greater than doubling its earlier excessive and sending the Norwegian oil and gasoline producer’s shares up greater than 7%.
With web revenue for the 12 months of $28.7 billion, up from $8.6 billion a 12 months earlier, Equinor joined world oil and gasoline majors corresponding to ExxonMobil (XOM.N), Shell (SHEL.L) and BP (BP.L) in reporting document returns for 2022.
Majority state-owned Equinor (EQNR.OL) grew to become Europe’s largest provider of pure gasoline final 12 months as Russia’s Gazprom (GAZP.MM) minimize deliveries over the West’s help for Ukraine, sending European gasoline costs to all-time highs.
However gasoline costs have tumbled in 2023 and Equinor’s Oslo-listed shares have fallen 9% year-to-date, underperforming a 3.3% rise in European petroleum shares (.SXEP).
Adjusted earnings earlier than tax and curiosity for October-December hit $15.1 billion, from $15 billion a 12 months earlier than and above the $14.4 billion forecast in an Equinor ballot of analysts.
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RBC analyst Biraj Borkhataria mentioned in a observe this was as a result of higher than anticipated leads to Equinor’s refining and buying and selling operation, which was boosted by LNG and gasoline gross sales.
Equinor additionally raised its common quarterly dividend and mentioned it anticipated to see annual money circulation from operations after tax of round $20 billion per 12 months for the remainder of the last decade.
“On the again of sturdy earnings, outlook, and steadiness sheet, we step up capital distribution to (an) anticipated $17 billion in 2023,” Equinor CEO Anders Opedal mentioned in an announcement.
Equinor mentioned it might pay an everyday quarterly dividend of $0.30 per share, up from $0.20, and make a further, extraordinary fee of $0.60 per share for 4 consecutive quarters, totalling about $11 billion in dividends this 12 months.
The board reaffirmed an everyday share buyback plan of $1.2 billion per 12 months and mentioned it might make a rare purchase again in 2023 of $4.8 billion, for a complete of $6 billion.
Equinor mentioned its general oil and gasoline manufacturing fell by 2% year-on-year to 2.04 million barrels of oil equal per day (boed) in 2022, nevertheless it anticipated this to develop by 3% in 2023.
A senior govt mentioned it’s investigating the potential of boosting output from Western Europe’s largest oilfield, Johan Sverdrup, to 755,000 barrels per day (bpd) from 720,000 bpd.
Gasoline output from its Norwegian fields was up by 8% on a 12 months earlier as the corporate centered on changing misplaced Russian provides to Europe, whereas oil output declined by 6%, it added.
Equinor’s earlier adjusted earnings document was $36.2 billion in 2008, when North Sea oil costs hit document highs.
The corporate, which makes most of its revenue in Norway, the place oil companies are topic to a tax fee of 78%, mentioned it anticipated to pay a document $49.9 billion in taxes for 2022.
“The mix of this (of dividend and share buybacks) is prone to be effectively forward of market expectations, and indicators a robust message to the market on intentions to pay out to shareholders,” RBC’s Borkhataria mentioned.
Reporting by Nerijus Adomaitis; Enhancing by Gwladys Fouche, Terje Solsvik, Kim Coghill and Alexander Smith
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