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Investing.com -- Norway’s Aker BP ASA (OL:AKRBP) swung to a fourth-quarter loss on Wednesday after taking nearly $1 billion in impairment charges, but held its dividend steady and pledged higher payouts next year as the oil producer pressed ahead with major North Sea developments.
The company posted a net loss of $145 million for the October-December period, compared with a profit of $562 million a year earlier, after booking $944 million in impairments. For the full year, net profit fell 93% to $132 million, dragged down by $2.02 billion in writedowns.
Aker BP said it had reduced its long-term oil price assumption to $73.50 per barrel from $75 and gas to 0.65 pounds per therm from 0.76 pounds, prompting impairments on assets including its stake in the giant Johan Sverdrup field.
Despite the loss, the company maintained its quarterly dividend at $0.63 per share and said it would raise payouts by 5% in 2026 to $0.6615 per share quarterly, lifting full-year dividends to $2.52 per share.
“We delivered stable and efficient operations in the fourth quarter, supported by high production efficiency and a continued focus on safe, reliable execution across all our assets,” Chief Executive Karl Johnny Hersvik said.
Fourth-quarter EBITDA fell 9% from the previous quarter to $2.07 billion, while revenue slipped to $2.56 billion as realised oil prices dropped 10% to $63.10 per barrel and gas prices fell 6%. Production averaged 410,600 barrels of oil equivalent per day.
The largely non-cash impairments pushed the effective tax rate to 137% for the quarter, the company said, compared with 67% excluding impairments.
Analysts at RBC Capital Markets said the results were broadly in line operationally, adding that Aker BP’s 2026 production guidance of 370,000-400,000 boepd matched expectations, while capital expenditure guidance of $6.2-$6.7 billion was slightly above consensus, reflecting higher spending on sanctioned growth projects.
The brokerage said that EBITDA and operating cash flow were close to forecasts despite lower commodity prices.
RBC added that Aker BP could raise dividends faster than current guidance, citing forecast free cash flow of about $11 billion between 2026 and 2030 under a $65-per-barrel oil price, compared with consensus dividend expectations of roughly $9.6 billion over the same period. It said this supports dividend growth of around 10% from 2027 to 2030.
Separately, Aker BP raised the cost estimate for its Valhall PWP-Fenris development to $7 billion from $5.9 billion after expanding its drilling programme to add five wells, boosting recoverable volumes by 3-35 million barrels. First production remains targeted for 2027.
Operating cash flow fell to $1.59 billion from $2.02 billion a year earlier due to higher tax payments, while capital spending rose to $2 billion as the company advanced major projects including Yggdrasil and Johan Sverdrup Phase 3.
“Combined with Phase 3 of Johan Sverdrup and the ramp-up schedules, we continue to expect production to increase to 525kboe/ d in FY28. This should drive up FCF to over $3bn in FY27E, as capex falls to more normalised ($2-3bn/annum) levels,” the brokerage said.
Net debt increased to $7.09 billion from $6.07 billion after Aker BP issued $1 billion of senior notes in October, lifting its leverage ratio to 0.63 from 0.49.
