April 10, 2025 [Oil Price]- Equinor advised analysts on Wednesday to expect weak liquids and LNG trading results for the first quarter of the year, as its Marketing, Midstream & Processing (MMP) division is also set to incur a hit of about $100 million of costs of drilling of carbon capture and storage (CCS) appraisal wells.

In a notice to analysts inviting them to submit forecasts for Q1, the Norwegian energy major issued a preliminary trading update on the factors expected to influence its first-quarter results, which will be published on April 30.

In the MMP division, Equinor told analysts to “expect relatively weak results from liquids and LNG trading.”

For the Norwegian operations, analysts should take into account the fact that the Hammerfest LNG / Snøhvit facilities were shut-in for a total of 20 days in the first quarter for maintenance and pitstop, Equinor said.

The company has an estimated realized liquids price for E&P Norway in the range of $72.80-$74.80 per barrel for the first quarter, while E&P International has an estimated realized liquids price in the range of $66-$70 a barrel.

In the U.S. operations, Equinor expects the realized natural gas price to be higher than the prior quarter, driven by higher prices throughout Q1 2025.

Earlier this week, UK-based supermajor Shell, the world’s top LNG trader, said that it expects its liquefied natural gas production in the first quarter to have dropped from Q4, due to cyclones and unplanned maintenance in Australia.

Shell sees LNG liquefaction volumes at between 6.4 million metric tons and 6.8 million tons in the first quarter of 2025, down from a previous forecast of 6.6 million-7.2 million tons and from 7.1 million tons produced in the fourth quarter of 2024, the supermajor said in its first-quarter 2025 update note on Monday.

Last week, U.S. supermajor ExxonMobil said it expects its first-quarter earnings to be higher than in Q4 by up to $2 billion, thanks to higher oil and gas prices and rising refining margins.

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