State-controlled Equinor reported a 9% year-on-year drop in its Norwegian oil output for the first quarter on Friday, suggesting continued problems and steep natural decline at currently producing fields ahead of the startup of the giant Johan Sverdrup field later this year.
The reduction, to 546,000 b/d, was mostly offset by a 12% increase in Equinor's international production, to 443,000 b/d, likely driven by increases in Brazil and the US, and by stable gas production, which rose by 2% both in its Norwegian and international operations.
But the fall in Equinor's Norwegian oil output reflects wider difficulties for the Norwegian oil industry, as the nation's oil production overall also fell by 9% year on year in the first quarter, to 1.78 million b/d, according to the Norwegian Petroleum Directorate.
Equinor previously reported its oil output had dropped by 5% in the full-year 2018 to 565,000 b/d, partly reflecting a spate of technical problems, including with rotating equipment.
The company is pinning much of its output hopes on the startup of Johan Sverdrup, scheduled for November, with the first phase expected to ramp up to 440,000 b/d.
In its results statement Friday, Equinor forecast that its overall oil and gas output this year would be "around the same level" as last year, and reiterated its expectations that output will increase by 3% annually on average from 2019-2025 on the back of a further expansion of Johan Sverdrup, the Johan Castberg field in the Barents Sea, and increases overseas.
The country's output hopes, in being pinned on a few big projects, are ultimately regarded as more promising than the UK's, where a recent recovery has been based on a large number of fields, many of them producing modest volumes.
Equinor's Q1 2019 adjusted profit was up 4% from Q1 2018, at $1.54 billion, and its reduced its gearing, or debt ratio, to 19.4% at the end of the quarter, from 25.1% a year earlier.
