Equinor Net Loss Widens Amid Impairments and Writedowns; Sells US Onshore Assets

    By Dominic Chopping 
 

Equinor ASA on Wednesday said it was selling its U.S. onshore assets for $900 million as its fourth-quarter net loss widened amid impairments and write-downs.

The company, which is 67%-owned by the Norwegian state, said it has agreed to divest its interests in the Bakken field in North Dakota and Montana to Grayson Mill Energy, backed by EnCap Investments.

Separately, Equinor reported a net loss of $2.42 billion compared with a loss of $236 million a year earlier, as revenue fell 20% to $11.88 billion.

Analysts polled by FactSet had expected a net profit of $512 million on revenue of $12.74 billion.

Earnings for the quarter were weighed by impairments of $1.30 billion related to the U.S. assets held for sale and a previously announced writedown of $0.98 billion at the Tanzania LNG project.

"Our results are impacted by the market turmoil during the year, but with strong cost improvements and capital discipline we delivered positive net cash flow for the quarter and the full year," Chief Executive Eldar Saetre said.

"During 2020 we have delivered more than $3.7 billion in savings, well above our ambition for the action plan we launched in March to strengthen financial resilience. We are well positioned for value creation and strong cash flow in 2021 and the coming years."

Equinor delivered total equity production of 2.043 million barrels of oil equivalent a day in the quarter, down from 2.198 million barrels a day for the same quarter of the prior year.

Organic capital expenditure is estimated at an annual average of $9 billion-$10 billion for 2021-22 while production for 2021 is estimated to be around 2% above 2020 level.

Exploration activity in 2021 is seen at around $0.9 billion and it still expects to deliver average annual production growth of around 3% from 2019 to 2026.

Equinor declared a fourth-quarter dividend of $0.12.

Write to Dominic Chopping at [e-mail]

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

February 10, 2021 01:38 ET (06:38 GMT)

Copyright (c) 2021 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.