Oslo-listed Vår Energi, which is majority-owned by Italy's Eni, on Tuesday posted a 33% drop in third-quarter operating profit on weaker energy prices, missing forecasts, while raising its end-2025 production guidance.
Earnings before interest and tax (EBIT) for the July-September quarter fell to $907 million from $1.36 billion a year earlier, below the $941 million consensus forecast in a Vår Energi poll of 11 analysts.
The company kept its quarterly dividend guidance unchanged at $270 million, but revised its long-term production guidance following its planned acquisition of Neptune Energy's assets in Norway, part of a wider $4.9 billion deal by Eni.
"Together with the Neptune Energy Norway acquisition, set to close in Q1 2024, our production is expected to double to around 400,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day (boed) by the end of 2025," CEO Nick Walker said.
The previous guidance was 350,000 boed. Vår Energi has previously said the acquisition would add more than 60,000 boed in new production, of which more than half is natural gas.
Vår Energi's production in the third quarter stood at 210,000 boed.
Vår Energi plans to sell stakes in some smaller fields and fields nearing the end of their production, Walker said on a call with reporters.
"A good example of that is the Brage (divestment), and we will do more of that in the coming three to six months," he added, referring to a transaction this month.
The company has stakes in almost 40 producing fields off Norway, most operated by partners.
Vår Energi's Oslo-listed shares were up 1.7% by 0750 GMT, outperforming a 0.1% rise in European oil and gas stocks.
(Reuters - Reporting by Nerijus Adomaitis; editing by Terje Solsvik and Jason Neely)
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