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 SHEL.L 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.
(Reuters - Reporting by Nerijus Adomaitis and Nora Buli, editing by Terje Solsvik and Alexander Smith)