By Nerijus Adomaitis
OSLO (Reuters) -Equinor's second-quarter profit fell as expected by 13% from a year earlier, its earnings report showed on Wednesday, as declining oil prices outweighed a rise in the price of gas.
The Norwegian energy group's adjusted earnings before tax for April-June fell to $6.54 billion from $7.48 billion a year earlier, in line with the $6.53 billion predicted in a poll of 21 analysts compiled by the company.
Equinor maintained a projection that its oil and gas output will
grow by 4% this year compared to 2024 and kept its forecast for capital expenditure in 2025 of $13 billion.
"We are on track to deliver production growth in 2025 in line with our guidance," CEO Anders Opedal said in a statement.
In February, Equinor followed rivals such as Shell and BP in promising higher oil and gas output while scaling back investment in renewables, citing challenging market conditions for the green energy transition.
Equinor in the second quarter pumped 2.1 million barrels of oil equivalent per day (boed), slightly ahead of expectations in the analyst poll for 2.06 million boed, and up from 2.05 million boed a year earlier.
The company in 2022 overtook Russia's Gazprom as Europe's biggest supplier of natural gas when Moscow's invasion of Ukraine upended decades-long energy ties.
Equinor's share price has declined by 1.5% so far this year, lagging a 10% rise in the broader European energy stock index.
The company's oil sold for an average price of $63.0 per barrel in the second quarter, down 19% from a year earlier, while its European piped gas price rose 21% to $12 per million British thermal units.
The majority state-owned company maintained its quarterly dividend at $0.37 per share, and confirmed plans to return to shareholders a total of $9 billion this year, including $5 billion in share buybacks.
(Reporting by Nerijus Adomaitis, editing by Terje Solsvik)
