STAVANGER, Norway, April 30 (UPI) -- Norwegian energy company Statoil said Thursday its first quarter production increased nearly 4 percent year-on-year despite a significantly weakened market.
Statoil said in its quarterly report discoveries in Norway, Tanzania and in the U.S. waters of the Gulf of Mexico helped boost net production for the quarter. Its equity production increased 4 percent from first quarter 2014 to 2.05 million barrels of oil equivalent per day.
In a full-year report posted last month, the company said equity production of 1.93 million barrels of oil equivalent for 2014 was a 4 percent increase from the previous year. Statoil said results show it's among the leading companies in the industry.
The Norwegian Petroleum Directorate, the nation's energy regulator, reported preliminary national production in February of around 1.9 million barrels of oil, natural gas liquids and condensate per day. That's about 6,000 barrels per day less than in January.
The low price of oil is forcing most energy companies to spend less on exploration and production, a market situation reflected in low rig numbers. Statoil said it spent $355 million on exploration, down from the $433 million spent during the first quarter of 2014.
Low oil prices means lower earnings as well and for Statoil, first quarter earnings of $3 billion was about half as much as reported for first quarter 2014.
Statoil Chief Executive Officer Eldar Saetre said first quarter figures were impacted heavily by the weak market, though its operational performance was solid so far. "We take a more cautious view due to the uncertainty in the commodity markets," he said in a statement. "We continue to deliver strong underlying operational performance and solid results from marketing and trading."
