Statoil 3Q Loss Widens

Norway's Statoil ASA (STL.OS) Thursday reported a slightly wider third-quarter loss after booking a number of impairment charges mainly related to an unconventional onshore asset in North America, triggered by lower-than-expected production.

The company reported a loss for the three months ended Sept. 30 of $480 billion, compared with a year-earlier loss of $432 million. Revenue rose 12% to $13.61 billion; expectations were for $14.11 billion.

Statoil's adjusted earnings before interest and taxes, which excludes one-off items, rose to $2.3 billion from about $600 million a year earlier. Analysts expected $2.4 billion.

Statoil delivered equity production of 2.05 million barrels of oil equivalent a day in the quarter compared with 1.81 million a year earlier. The rise was mainly due to increased flexible gas production due to higher prices, lower turnaround activity, ramp-up of new fields, additional well capacity and continued strong operational performance, it said.

Statoil has raised its 2017 production growth target to 6% from 5%.

The board kept the dividend at 22.01 cents a share.

Write to Ian Walker at ian.walker@wsj.com; @IanWalk40289749

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

October 26, 2017 01:18 ET (05:18 GMT)