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“2020 was an extraordinary year with the pandemic causing human suffering and
market turmoil. I am impressed by our employees’ hard work during this year, to
keep people safe and operations running. We delivered solid operational
performance during this demanding year, but our results were heavily impacted by
the low prices for oil and gas,” says Anders Opedal, President and CEO of
Equinor ASA.
There was unprecedented volatility and decline in prices during the year, caused
by the Covid-19 pandemic especially during the first half. In March, Equinor
launched a 3-billion-dollar action plan to strengthen financial resilience.
Delivery on the plan resulted in savings of USD 3.7 billion, including a
reduction in fixed operating costs of around USD 1 billion.
Equinor is positioning itself to create value and be a leading company in the
energy transition and took major steps in 2020 to shape the future of the
company.
“We are preparing for a future that will be different from the past. Equinor
aims to be a leading company in the energy transition and to build the energy
industry of tomorrow,” says Opedal.
Annual report
In the Annual report for 2020, a new outline of the report and a table with more
information on a country-by-country basis are added to facilitate a better
overview of key events and results for 2020.
IFRS net operating income was negative USD 3.42 billion and the IFRS net income
was negative USD 5.50 billion. The results are impacted by lower prices and
impairments mainly due to reduced future price assumptions.
Equinor delivered adjusted earnings(1) of USD 3.49 billion before tax and USD
0.92 billion after tax, mainly adjusted for net impairments. In 2020, the cash
flow from operations after tax amounted to USD 10.9 billion.
As a reaction to the market uncertainty, and to further strengthen financial
resilience, Equinor reduced its cash dividend significantly and suspended share
buy backs under the share buy-back programme in the spring of 2020. Total
capital distribution to shareholders for the year was USD 3.39 billion.
For the full year, the serious incident frequency was 0.5, down from 0.6 in
2019. The total recordable injury frequency was at 2.3, down from 2.5 in the
previous year.
“Although we observed a positive trend in some of our safety indicators, serious
incidents at our onshore plants are a stark reminder that we need to further
improve our safety performance. Together with our suppliers and partners, we
must ensure implementation of existing safety initiatives and focus on
extracting learnings from previous incidents,” Opedal writes in the letter.
Equinor’s management and external auditors have in accordance with requirements
for SEC reporting companies assessed and concluded that Equinor’s internal
control over financial reporting as of 31 December 2020 was not effective due to
control deficiencies related to two specific areas. Equinor is actively
undertaking remediation efforts to address the two material weaknesses. The
auditors have provided an unqualified audit report on the consolidated financial
statements.
Sustainability report
The 2020 Sustainability Report offers an overview of how Equinor works with its
most material sustainability impacts. Sustainability is embedded in Equinor’s
strategy, and the company is committed to long term value creation inspired and
guided by the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals.
“Society has to move towards net-zero emissions, and we aim to be a committed
partner on that journey. Equinor has set clear ambitions for the future and we
are delivering strong progress to achieve them,” says Opedal.
In 2020, Equinor’s (scope 1 & 2) greenhouse gas emissions were 1.4 million
tonnes lower than in 2019, due to energy efficiency projects, changes in the
portfolio and lower activity level.
The average C02 intensity of Equinor’s operated portfolio was 8.0 kg CO2 per
barrel of oil equivalent (boe), down from 9.5 kg per boe in 2019. Going forward,
Equinor expects fluctuations in the upstream carbon intensity from year to year,
but the long-term direction towards lower emission intensity is clear.
Renewables and low carbon solutions projects accounted for 4% of Equinor’s gross
capex in 2020. The renewable share of all projects sanctioned, and investments
committed in 2020 was around 60%.
The company is reporting on new metrics on climate, security, human rights, and
diversity & inclusion in the 2020 report. The material topics are also more
clearly linked to the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals.
The 2020 Sustainability report may be downloaded from Equinor’s website at
Equinor.com.
In accordance with Section 203.01 of the New York Stock Exchange Listed Company
Manual, Equinor ASA announces that on 19 March 2021 it filed with the Securities
and Exchange Commission its 2020 Annual Report on Form 20-F that included
audited financial statements for the year ended December 31, 2020.
The Equinor 2020 Annual Report and Form 20-F may be downloaded from Equinor’s
website at www.equinor.com. References to this document or other documents on
Equinor’s website are included as an aid to their location and are not
incorporated by reference into this document. All SEC filings made available
electronically by Equinor may be obtained from the SEC’s website at www.sec.gov.
Shareholders may also request a hard copy of the annual report free of charge at
www.equinor.com.
(1) These are non-GAAP figures. See Use and reconciliation of non-GAAP financial
measures in the report for more details.
Further information
Investor relations
Peter Hutton, Senior Vice President, Investor Relations,
+44 7881 918 792
Press
Bård Glad Pedersen, Vice President, Media Relations,
+47 918 01 791
Cautionary Note regarding Forward Looking Statements
This press release contains forward-looking statements. Forward-looking
statements reflect current views with respect to future events and are, by their
nature, subject to significant risks and uncertainties because they relate to
events and depend on circumstances that will occur in the future. There are a
number of factors that could cause actual results and developments to differ
materially from those expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements.
This information is subject to the disclosure requirements pursuant to Section
5-12 of the Norwegian Securities Trading Act
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