Deepsea Stavanger Aker BP
Drilling & Production

Aker BP results beat expectations, lifts output forecast for year

Reuters

Aker BP, Norway’s second-largest listed oil company, raised its production forecast on Wednesday and reported a smaller than expected decline in third-quarter profits, lifting the company’s share price.

The group’s earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) fell to $2.3 billion for July–September, from $2.6 billion a year earlier, beating the $2.2 billion expected in a company-compiled poll of fifteen analysts.

Aker BP now expects to pump between 410,000 and 425,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day (boed) in 2025, up from 400,000–420,000 boed seen previously, citing high production efficiency and stable output from Norway’s giant Johan Sverdrup oilfield.

The development of new offshore fields off Norway, including the flagship 700 million barrels Yggdrasil, was progressing as planned and is expected to boost Aker BP’s output to 525,000 boed by 2028, the company added.

“Looking further ahead, we seek significant growth potential beyond our current outlook,” CEO Karl Johnny Hersvik told analysts and reporters. “Continued exploration success and targeted mergers and acquisitions provide a clear path to expand our production base well into the next decade,” he said.

The Sverdrup field, operated by Equinor and in which Aker BP holds a 31.57 per cent stake, accounted for more than half of the company’s third-quarter production.

Aker BP maintained its full-year dividend guidance of $2.52 per share for 2025 and said it was confident it could increase the payout by at least five per cent annually as long as the oil price remains above $40 per barrel.

Brent crude futures traded above $62 a barrel on Wednesday, after hitting a five-month low on Monday. Aker BP’s Oslo-listed shares were up two per cent by 09:13 GMT, outperforming a wider European oil and gas index, which was up 0.9 per cent.

(Reporting by Nerijus Adomaitis; Editing by Terje Solsvik and Louise Heavens)