Equinor Unveils $5 Billion Buyback, Trims Renewables Spending As Oil & Gas Output Rises – Equinor (NYSE:EQNR)
Equinor ASA EQNR shares are trading lower after the company reported fourth-quarter FY24 results.
Revenue and other income fell 5% year-over-year (Y/Y) to $27.654 billion and adjusted revenue declined 7% Y/Y to $26.418 billion. The consensus estimate stood at $25.973 billion.
Total equity liquids and gas production decreased 6% Y/Y to 2,072 mboe per day, with equity liquids production falling 6% Y/Y to 1,081 mboe per day and equity gas production declining 5% Y/Y to 991 mboe per day.
The company says that on the Norwegian continental shelf (NCS), production remained steady with the ramp-up of Breidablikk and new gas wells but was lower year-over-year due to natural decline, a Sleipner B outage, and planned maintenance.
Group average liquids price fell 10% Y/Y to $68.5/bbl, and realized piped gas price U.S. was $2.36/MMBtu.
Equinor produced 829 GWh from renewables, up 19% Y/Y, in the quarter.
Equinor reported an adjusted operating income of $7.90 billion in the quarter, with $6.81 billion from E&P Norway, $303 million from E&P International, and $184 million from E&P USA.
Adjusted EPS of $0.63, beating the consensus of $0.62.
Operating cash flow stood at $2.42 billion, down 12% Y/Y, in the quarter.
Dividend: The board of directors declared a fourth-quarter ordinary cash dividend per share of $0.37 and an extraordinary cash dividend of $0.35, payable on May 28, to shareholders of record as of May 16.
Repurchase: The board has launched the first tranche of its share buyback program of up to $1.2 billion, running until April 2, 2025.
Equinor launched a share buyback program of up to $5 billion for 2025, including shares to be redeemed from the Norwegian State, completing its two-year plan announced in February 2024.
Outlook: Equinor continues to expect total capital distributions of up to $9 billion in 2025.
The company targets shareholder returns with over 15% return on capital employed by 2030.
Equinor plans to strengthen free cash flow to $23 billion for 2025-2027 by cutting capex and costs.
The company projects oil and gas production growth of over 10% from 2024-2027, while investments in renewables and low-carbon solutions will be reduced to $5 billion after project financing.
Equinor expects renewable capacity to be 10-12 GW by 2030.
The company forecasts $13 billion in organic capex for 2025, with oil and gas production expected to grow 4% over 2024 levels.
Anders Opedal, President and CEO, said, “Equinor is well positioned for further growth and competitive shareholder returns. We expect to deliver industry-leading return on average capital employed, above 15% all the way to 2030.”
”Our oil and gas production outlook is increased to more than 10% growth from 2024 to 2027. We strengthen our expected free cash flow significantly compared to last year’s outlook. We do this by high-grading the portfolio, reducing the investment outlook for renewables and low carbon solutions, and improving cost across our organization,” Opedal noted.
”We now expect the 2025 Johan Sverdrup production to be close to the level of the last two years. This shows how we work systematically to improve our producing assets to remain a safe and reliable provider of energy,” he added.
Investors can gain exposure to the stock via Keating Active ETF KEAT and Pacer Developed Markets International Cash Cows 100 ETF ICOW.
Price Action: EQNR shares were down 3.5% at $23.90 premarket at last check Wednesday.
Read Next:
Photo: Shutterstock
Market News and Data brought to you by Benzinga APIs
© 2025 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved.
