Aker BP to boost dividend as profits soar

OSLO (Reuters) - Norwegian independent oil company Aker BP will boost its annual dividend by 10%, the company said on Friday after reporting its fourth-quarter operating profit surged to $2.2 billion from $1.2 billion a year earlier.

Norway's second-largest listed oil company, partly owned by BP, said it would pay $2.2 per share this year, or $0.55 quarterly, up from $2.0 in 2022.

Meanwhile, it also plans to double its capital spending in 2023 to between $3 billion and $3.5 billion from $1.6 billion last year to develop new fields and grow its production further.

Last June, the company completed the acquisition of Norwegian upstream assets, including a 20% stake in the Johan Sverdrup oilfield, from Sweden's Lundin Energy.

"Through the Lundin acquisition, we have doubled in size and created a stronger and more financially robust platform for future growth," Aker BP Chief Executive Karl Johnny Hersvik said.

(Graphic: Aker BP dividends, https://www.reuters.com/graphics/AKERBP-RESULTS/AKERBP/xmvjkrynmpr/chart.png)

Aker BP forecast on Wednesday its production would grow to between 430,000-460,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day (boed) this year from 422,000 boed in the second half of 2022.

The new guidance, however, is lower than 475,000 boed forecast for this year last July.

"While production guidance could disappoint some, we believe the company is being conservative and that there is ample room for surprises on the upside," DNB analysts said in a note.

Aker BP's Oslo-listed shares traded down 0.5% by 1045 GMT, underperforming a wider European oil and gas index, which was up 2%.

Hersvik said the production guidance revision reflected a later ramp-up of the Equinor-operated Sverdrup field, where Aker BP has 31.6% stake.

Equinor hopes to boost the field's output to 755,000 boed from 720,000 boed later this year, and Hersvik said he believed it could be done.

He said the company was also looking for potential acquisitions on the Norwegian continental shelf.

($1 = 10.2017 Norwegian crowns)

(Reporting by Nerijus Adomaitis, editing by Terje Solsvik, Philippa Fletcher and Tomasz Janowski)