Norway's Statoil ASA reported a steeper-than-expected 6 percent drop in fourth-quarter operating profit due to lower output and higher costs, and said its takeover of Norsk Hydro's oil and gas business was well under way.
Operating profit at the Nordic region's biggest industrial company by turnover fell to 26.06 billion Norwegian crowns ($4.17 billion) in the three months to end-December from 27.80 billion in the same quarter a year earlier.
The result lagged an average forecast of 26.8 billion crowns in a Reuters poll of 17 analysts whose forecasts had ranged from 21.3 billion to 28.5 billion crowns.
Shares in Statoil fell 0.9 percent to 161.75 crowns by 0917 GMT, valuing the company at about $55.8 billion, underperforming a 0.75 percent fall in the Oslo bourse benchmark index and a 0.7 percent drop in the DJ Stoxx oil and gas index.
(Reuters)