Equinor achieves "best quarterly results since 2014": CEO

Norwegian energy group Equinor earned $4.5bn in pre-tax profit in the first quarter, the company reported on April 29, hailing it as its best quarterly result since 2014.

The state-owned company earned only $81mn in pre-tax profit in first quarter of 2020. Adjusted earnings also more than doubled year on year to $5.47bn in Q1 2021, while IFRS net income was $1.85bn, marking a reversal from a $705mn loss a year earlier.

"With sustained improvements and capital discipline, we are able to capture value from recovering oil and gas prices and achieve our best quarterly results since 2014," Equinor CEO Anders Opedal said in a statement.

Equinor generated some $5.17bn in net cash flow in the quarter, versus a mere $362mn in Q1 2020. The company also managed to bring its net debt to capital employed level to under 25%, versus 31.7% in the previous quarter. Equinor benefited from a $1.4bn gain from farm downs at its offshore wind assets. The company in January sold a 50% interest in the Empire Wind and Beacon Wind developments on the US east coast for $1.1bn.

Revenues were up 16% at $17.5bn, on the back of higher prices that more than offset a 3% yr/yr decline in the company's oil and gas production to 2.17mn barrels of oil equivalent/day. The company was also supported by cost improvements and strict capital discipline, it said.

Equinor's marketing, midstream and processing segment performed worse due to losses on derivatives for gas forward sales, weak refining margins and the closure of the Hammerfest LNG plant in September last year after a serious fire. Equinor does not expect to restart the facility until March 2022.

Hammerfest LNG's closure and maintenance at the Peregrino oilfield in Brazil were offset by higher flex gas volume, increased US onshore gas supply and greater contributions from the Johan Sverdrup and Snorre Expansion projects in Norway.

Equinor suffered a record $5.5bn net loss in 2020, as the COVID-19 pandemic caused oil and gas prices to slump and led to hefty write-downs. The company will make a $900mn gain in the current quarter from the closure of the sale of its US Bakken assets to Grayson Mill Energy in late April.