By Nerijus Adomaitis
OSLO (Reuters) -Norway’s Equinor posted record pretax profits for the fourth quarter on Wednesday, driven by a boom in oil and gas prices and said it will raise its dividend and increase share buybacks.
Adjusted earnings before tax rose to $15.0 billion in the October-December quarter from $756 million in the same period a year ago, exceeding the $13.2 billion predicted in a poll of 23 analysts compiled by Equinor.
CEO Anders Opedal said Equinor enjoyed a free cash flow of $25 billion last year as a result of “continued improvements and capital discipline”.
“We are capturing value from high prices for gas and liquids with excellent performance and increased production,” he said a in statement.
The oil and gas industry saw a massive turnaround last year as markets overcame the pandemic-driven slump of 2020, with the price of European natural gas quadrupling between January and December while North Sea crude rose more than 50%.
Majority state-owned Equinor said it would pay a quarterly dividend of $0.20 per share, up from $0.18 per share paid in the third quarter, and plans to increase its share buybacks in 2022 to $5 billion from $1.3 billion in 2021.
European oil industry peers have also posted soaring profits in recent days, with BP promising to increase its share buybacks and Shell saying it will raise both dividends and its stock purchases.
Equinor’s quarterly petroleum production stood at 2.16 million barrels of oil equivalent per day (boepd) in the fourth quarter, up 6% from the same period of 2020.
The company expects its oil and gas production to grow by 2% in 2022.
Equinor’s shares have risen 63% in the last 12 months, more than double the rise in the European oil and gas index.
(Editing by Terje Solsvik and Gwladys Fouche)
