EQNR Equinor ASA

    By Dominic Chopping 
 

Equinor ASA on Thursday raised its quarterly dividend after swinging to a net profit on higher oil and gas prices, cost cuts and a divestment gains.

The company, which is 67%-owned by the Norwegian state, said first-quarter adjusted earnings--its preferred measure--rose to $5.47 billion from $2.05 billion, against $4.74 billion expected in a FactSet poll.

It reported a net profit of $1.85 billion from a loss of $708 million a year earlier, as revenue rose 7.1% to $16.13 billion.

Analysts had expected a net profit of $2.42 billion on revenue of $16.75 billion.

Equinor posted a gain of $1.38 billion from the sale of offshore wind assets in the quarter.

The company delivered total equity production of 2.168 million barrels of oil equivalent a day in the quarter, down from 2.233 million barrels in the same quarter last year.

Equinor backed its guidance, and still expects organic capital expenditure at an annual average of $9 billion-$10 billion for 2021-22 and 2021 production around 2% above the 2020 level. Exploration activity in 2021 is still seen at $900 million and average annual production growth at around 3% from 2020 to 2026.

Equinor declared a first-quarter dividend of $0.15 from $0.12 in the fourth quarter.

Write to Dominic Chopping at dominic.chopping@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

April 29, 2021 01:47 ET (05:47 GMT)

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