Finance
Equinor cuts buybacks by 70% and flags sharp drop in capital expenditure next year
Published by Global Banking & Finance Review®
Posted on February 4, 2026
2 min readLast updated: February 4, 2026
Global Banking & Finance Review®
Company
Published by Global Banking & Finance Review®
Posted on February 4, 2026
2 min readLast updated: February 4, 2026
Equinor's Q4 profit fell but outperformed expectations with $6.20 billion in earnings. The company plans a 3% production growth by 2026 and adjusts its share buyback and dividend strategies.
By Nerijus Adomaitis and Nora Buli
OSLO, Feb 4 (Reuters) - Equinor will cut share buybacks by 70% and trim renewables and low-emissions energy investment, it said on Wednesday as it posted a 22% drop in fourth-quarter profit, hit by weaker oil and gas prices.
Share buybacks and hefty dividends have supported share prices of global oil majors in recent years, with many analysts saying such shareholder returns are unsustainable in the face of low oil prices.
"We are taking steps to strengthen free cash flow," Equinor CEO Anders Opedal told reporters. "This makes us even more robust against lower prices and allows us to maintain a strong balance sheet in turbulent times."
Equinor shares were up 0.8% by 1122 GMT.
The Norwegian energy group's adjusted earnings before tax in the last three months of 2025 fell to $6.2 billion but were still above the $5.93 billion consensus analyst poll compiled by the company.
Share buybacks will be cut to $1.5 billion this year, from $5 billion last year, and the quarterly cash dividend has been raised to $0.39 per share from $0.37 previously, it said.
Analysts have said that Equinor's rivals Shell and BP, which are due to report fourth-quarter results on February 5 and February 10 respectively, could also cut shareholder distributions due to lower prices.
Equinor, which is majority owned by the state, said it will maintain capital expenditure of $13 billion in 2026 but cut this to $9 billion next year, primarily through lower spending on renewables and low-carbon solutions.
Capital spending will be focused on maintaining steady petroleum production in Norway towards 2035 and growth in its international petroleum output while taking a "disciplined" approach to building its integrated power business, it added.
Equinor expects about 3% production growth this year, up from record levels in 2025, helped by increased international output.
At home, output from the Equinor-operated Johan Sverdrup oilfield is expected to decline by more than 10%, Opedal said.
(Reporting by Nerijus Adomaitis and Nora BuliAdditional reporting by Shadia Nasralla in LondonEditing by Terje Solsvik and David Goodman)
Adjusted earnings before tax is a financial metric that reflects a company's earnings before tax, adjusted for certain non-recurring items, providing a clearer view of operational performance.
Share buybacks occur when a company purchases its own shares from the marketplace, reducing the number of outstanding shares and often increasing the value of remaining shares.
A cash dividend is a payment made by a company to its shareholders, typically derived from profits, representing a portion of the company's earnings distributed to investors.
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