Statoil slashes spending as profits wane
Norwegian energy company Statoil has announced net income of 14.8bn Norwegian Krone (£1.4bn) for the fourth quarter. The results came in below estimates of a Bloomberg poll of 20.8bn Norwegian Krone but were better than the more bearish forecasts of RBC Capital Markets of 12.3bn Norwegian Krone.
The company said the results were "impacted by a higher gas share, lower realised prices and high depreciation cost in the US onshore business."
As expected, Statoil cut its capital expenditure, with the cuts amounting to over £3bn from 2014-16. The energy giant will see capital spending reduced by eight per cent compared to previous estimates – reaching £12.2bn for each of those years.
On the production side Statoil expects to deliver around three per cent average rebased organic production growth from 2013-16.
The company delivered equity production of 1,940m barrels of oil equivalent (mboe) per day in 2013, compared to 2,004 mboe per day in 2012. The company attributes the fall to divestments and redetermination.
Helge Lund, Statoil's president and CEO said:
Our operational performance was good, with safety improvements, production as expected and strong project execution. We delivered leading exploration results and strengthened our resource base.