Norway's Statoil posts Q4 net income of 4.4 billion dollars

Feb 8, 2012, 8:01 GMT

Oslo - Norwegian energy group Statoil's fourth-quarter net income more than doubled, mainly over higher prices for gas and oil but also over the sale of assets such as the gas transport system Gassled, the company said Wednesday.

Net income for the quarter was 25.5 billion kroner (4.4 billion dollars) compared to 9.7 billion kroner in the corresponding 2010 period.

Revenues in the quarter were 60.7 billion kroner, up 32 per cent year-on-year, the state-controlled group said.

The results included gains of 8.5 billion kroner on the sale of assets, mainly the stake in the Gassled infrastructure system.

Statoil said its average daily oil and gas output was some 1.97 million barrels of oil equivalent per day during the quarter. A year ago, daily output was 1.94 million barrels of oil equivalent.

For full-year 2011, revenues increased 54 per cent to 211 billion kroner, while net income doubled to 78.4 billion kroner.

During the year the group completed 41 exploration wells of which 22 were discoveries. Finds were made in the North Sea and the Barents Sea.

'We delivered strong exploration results in 2011, adding more than 1 billion barrels to Statoil's resource base,' chief executive Helge Lund said.

The average fourth-quarter oil price measured in Norwegian kroner was up 19 per cent year-on-year, while the average natural gas price was 22-per-cent higher, the group said.

For 2012, Statoil predicted production would be about 3 per cent higher than in 2011.