Statoil reports more than doubled Q1 profit on increased production, higher oil prices

Statoil posts more than doubled Q1 profit

OSLO — Norwegian oil company Statoil ASA said Wednesday that its first-quarter profits more than doubled, with increased production and rising oil prices offsetting a weak natural gas market.

Net profit for the January through March period jumped to 11.1 billion kroner ($1.84 billion) from 4 billion kroner in 2009. Quarterly revenue rose to 129 billion kroner from 113 billion kroner a year earlier.

Statoil shares slipped 2.75 percent to close at 138.30 kroner ($22.86) on the Oslo Stock Exchange.

The group based in Stavanger said a 48 percent increase in oil prices and higher oil and natural gas output offset a drop of 35 percent in natural gas prices.

Trond Omdal, an analyst at Arctic Securities, said the result and increase in production were “generally better than expected.” He added that the negative market reaction may be due to focus on a drop in North Sea oil production during the quarter as well as a slight dip in oil prices since Tuesday.

Statoil Chief Executive Officer Helge Lund said he was pleased with the results.

“Our equity production has been high and oil prices have been rising. Despite weaknesses in the gas market our natural gas business has delivered solid results,” Lund said.

However, the state-controlled company provided a mixed outlook for the remainder of the year, warning that “commodity prices will continue to be volatile” and that “the gas market will be challenging in the near term.”

Statoil said its oil and gas production for the quarter rose to 2.10 million barrels of oil equivalents per day, compared with 2.07 million barrels of oil equivalents a year earlier. Oil equivalents measure the energy content, rather than volume, of oil and gas.

Statoil is the main oil producer on the Norwegian continental shelf, and has about 30,000 employees in more than 40 countries.

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