Equinor has announced a bump in its ordinary cash dividend for the third quarter while unveiling plans to initiate the final tranche of its share repurchase program, despite a 9% slip in profits year-over-year. For the third quarter ending on September 30, the Norwegian energy giant reported an attributable net income of $2.28 billion, a decrease from $2.50 billion in the same quarter last year.
Total revenue fell to $25.42 billion from $25.92 billion, although both figures exceeded analysts' expectations, with predictions of $2 billion and $24.04 billion respectively according to data from Visible Alpha. The results for the third quarter were influenced by a decline in operational performance, which saw total equity production decrease to 1.98 million barrels of oil equivalent per day, down from 2.01 million boe per day in the previous year.
Equinor faced challenges related to lower sales volumes and reduced prices of liquids, yet this was somewhat mitigated by an uptick in gas prices and volumes sold. Despite the overall reduction in production, the company managed to achieve a 2% increase in output from the Norwegian continental shelf.
CEO Anders Opedal highlighted the enhancements made in the gas value chain, stating, "Over time, we have upgraded the capacity in the gas value chain. This has contributed to an all-time high production from the Troll field in the gas year. In the quarter, the Johan Sverdrup field delivered a production record of more than 756,000 barrels of oil in one day and reached the significant milestone of one billion barrels produced since its startup five years ago." In spite of lower profitability and reduced output, Equinor's board declared an ordinary cash dividend of $0.35 per share for the period, an increase from the previous dividend of $0.30 per share.
Conversely, the extraordinary cash dividend was adjusted down to $0.35 per share from $0.60 per share in the corresponding period last year. The company has also finalized arrangements to kick-off the fourth and final tranche of its $1.6 billion share buyback program this Friday. The repurchase will allow the acquisition of up to $528 million in shares and will continue until January 31, 2025. For the full year 2024, Equinor anticipates that oil and gas outputs will remain stable when compared with the prior year.
Additionally, the company is projecting organic capital expenditures to be in the range of $12 billion to $13 billion. On a recent call, RBC Capital Markets emphasized that investors should pay close attention to the company's discussions surrounding medium-term capital expenditure implications arising from its stake acquisition in Orsted.
In October, Equinor obtained a 9.8% share in the Danish energy firm. In morning trading, Equinor's stock saw a rise of almost 2%..