Statoil loss widens

Norwegian energy giant and LNG operator Statoil on Thursday reported a wider third-quarter loss despite higher oil and gas prices, after booking a number of impairment charges.

The company reported a loss for the third quarter of $478 million, compared with a year-earlier loss of $427 million.

According to Statoil, the most significant impact came from an impairment charge due to underperforming unconventional onshore assets in North America.

On the other side, revenue rose 12 percent to $13.61 billion.

Statoil’s adjusted operating profit reached $2.3 billion in the third quarter, up from $0.7 million during the same period a year ago

The company’s delivered equity production of 2.05 million barrels of oil equivalent a day in the quarter compared with 1.81 million a year earlier.

“With an oil price below 52 dollars per barrel, we have generated 3.6 billion dollars in free cash flow so far this year, based on good contributions from all business segments. This has further strengthened our financial position,” said chief executive Eldar Sætre.

“We continue to realise efficiency improvements and deliver strong progress on project development and execution. We reduce our organic capex guidance for 2017 by 1 billion dollars, to around 10 billion dollars. This is the result of hard work from the organisation, in close collaboration with our suppliers and partners, and strict capital discipline. We are getting more for less,” added Sætre.