Statoil Q2 profits surge on higher oil prices, production

Statoil posts Q2 profit surge

OSLO, Norway — Norwegian oil company Statoil ASA said second-quarter net profit surged to 3.6 billion kroner ($584 million) from only 77 million kroner a year earlier, as increased production and rising oil prices offset a weak natural gas market.

Quarterly revenue rose to 129 billion kroner from 104.6 billion kroner in the same period last year, Statoil said Thursday.

Statoil shares slipped 3.2 percent, to 127.10 kroner ($20.71), in morning trading in Oslo.

The Stavanger-based group said a 32 percent increase in oil prices, as well as higher oil and natural gas production, made up for a 12 percent drop in natural gas prices.

“Statoil’s second quarter is characterized by strong operational performance and a high activity level,” Chief Executive Officer Helge Lund said. “Statoil’s production is on track.”

Despite the year-on-year improvement, the result was weaker than expected, said Trond Omdal, an analyst at Arctic Securities. He said that was “primarily from lower realized gas and crude prices than expected, but also weaker international production.”

The company gave a mixed outlook, warning that “commodity prices will continue to be volatile and that (the) gas market will be challenging in the near term.”

In addition, Lund cautioned that planned maintenance operations will negatively affect production levels in the third quarter.

Statoil said its oil and gas production for the quarter jumped to 1.96 billion barrels of oil equivalents per day, compared with 1.84 billion 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.

Online:

www.statoil.com