The fall in prices affects the whole industry, and Statoil’s adjusted earnings before tax were NOK 22.4 billion, compared with NOK 32.3 billion a year earlier.
CEO Eldar Saetre dare not predict price movements in the short term, but still believe it may be some time before there is a balance between supply and demand in the oil market.
– The only thing we can do is to work on improving our program. Where we are making good progress, but we still have much to do towards 2016, says Saetre said.
The improvements involve spending cuts, and many jobs have disappeared in Statoil over the last year. In addition to these, it is assumed that at least 1,100 permanent employees and over 500 consultants will lose their jobs by the end of next year.
Better than expected
Many analysts had expected in advance from bad to worse results for Statoil in the second quarter. Statoil share was up over 2.5 percent during Tuesday but had fallen back somewhat and ended the day 1.4 percent plus.
– The results are encouraging, says Sætre, referring to a positive cost situation and strong production growth.
During the presentation of the new figures he still does not hide the challenges the company faces.
– Following the sharp fall in prices we saw towards the end of last year, we fully seen the negative effects on our results, said Statoil boss.
He thinks it’s still too much oil on the world market in relation to demand, and that it is difficult to say when the balance is restored. Statoil estimates is an oil price of $ 80 a barrel in 2018, but Saetre is unsure how development will be until then.
Disinvestment in Caucasus
Statoil’s financial results in the second quarter reflected both lower prices and capital gains, according to Saetre.
Operating revenues totaled 124.4 billion kroner, against 142.6 billion kroner in the second quarter last year. Income loss was limited by the gain on the sale of Shah Deniz project in Azerbaijan and South Caucasus pipeline, which came at 12.3 billion.
The company’s result according to the IFRS international accounting standards was 10.1 billion, compared to 12 billion in the same period last year. Without revenue from the sale of assets would this century been negatively.
Alerts stable dividend
Earnings per share were 3.15 million, down from 3.75 million in the same period last year .
The board of Statoil has determined that the payment of a quarterly dividend of 1.8 million. Next quarter it is expected that the dividend will be the same, according to the company, which, however, warns that the dividend will hereinafter be determined in dollars.
After the sale of assets Statoil submitted a production of 1.873 million barrels of oil equivalent (BOE) an increase of 4 percent compared with last year, according to the company.
The production from the Norwegian shelf increased by 7 percent.
– The increase was mainly due to the escalation of production in various fields, higher sales from the Norwegian shelf and lower maintenance compared with the second quarter of 2015. The expected natural decline and reduced holdings due to sales partly offset this increase, the company said.
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