By Nerijus Adomaitis and Nora Buli
OSLO (Reuters) -Equinor posted a bigger than expected drop in third-quarter profit on Wednesday as oil and gas prices fell, and booked asset impairments on a weaker long-term outlook for crude prices.
The Norwegian energy group’s adjusted earnings before tax for July-September fell 9.9% to $6.21 billion from $6.89 billion a year earlier, slightly lagging the $6.31 billion predicted in a poll of 21 analysts compiled by Equinor.
Equinor maintained a projection that its oil and gas output will grow by 4% this year compared to 2024 and kept its forecast for capital expenditure in 2025 of $13 billion.
LOWER PRICE OUTLOOK, WEAKER TRADING
But the group booked net asset impairments for the quarter, including some reversals of previous writedowns, of $754 million, “primarily driven by lower price outlook”.
Equinor now expects the benchmark Brent Blend oil price to be $75 per barrel between 2030 and 2040, while it had previously predicted a price of $80 at the start of that decade, declining to $75 by the end.
The biggest impairment was a revaluation of British assets, including the North Sea Rosebank oilfield development, that Equinor is merging with Shell in a deal expected to complete by the end of this year, taking a $650 million hit.
In the United States, Equinor booked an impairment of $385 million on offshore oil fields due to reduced production estimates, increased cost estimates, and the lower oil price assumption for the decade from 2030-2040, it said.
Equinor lowered its quarterly guidance for its Midstream, Marketing and Processing segment, home to its energy trading activities, to an average adjusted operating income of around $400 million, from a previous $400 million to $800 million range.
“This is due to changing market conditions and earlier divestment of certain assets,” it said.
(Reporting by Nerijus Adomaitis and Nora Buli, editing by Terje Solsvik and Alexander Smith)
