Equinor expects its first-quarter income in the trading and marketing division to exceed its $400-million guidance amid significant volatility as a result of the war in the Middle East.
Equinor has guided for the Marketing, Midstream, and Processing (MMP) division’s average quarterly adjusted operating income to be around $400 million. But the result for the first quarter “is expected to be above this guidance,” the Norwegian energy major said in a trading update on Thursday.
“The conflict in the Persian Gulf has driven significant volatility across crude, products, and liquids towards the end of the quarter,” Equinor noted, joining other European oil and gas majors in expecting higher trading profits.
Moreover, “Not directly related to the situation in the Middle East, European geographic spreads supported gains from optimising European gas flows,” Equinor said.
Furthermore, the company’s U.S. gas trading business was well-positioned to realize value from price spikes during the cold spell in late January.
In the upstream division, the estimated realized liquids price for E&P Norway is in the range of $83 – $85 per barrel, while the international realized liquids price is forecast in the range of $72-$76 a barrel.
Equinor will report first-quarter earnings on May 6.
The Norwegian company became the latest European energy major to anticipate stronger earnings from trading amid the heightened volatility at the end of the first quarter.
Earlier this week, BP said it expects to have booked an “exceptional” oil trading result for the first quarter of 2026, amid the extreme volatility in prices since the war in the Middle East began.
BP and other majors don’t disclose their trading profits but guide the market as to how strong or weak the trading results have been in a given quarter.
UK-based rival Shell expects adjusted earnings in marketing and oil trading for the first quarter to be “significantly higher”.
Shell, which will publish its first-quarter results on May 7, sees marketing adjusted earnings significantly higher than a year ago, and the trading and optimization results to be significantly higher than for the fourth quarter of 2025.
By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com
More Top Reads From Oilprice.com
- India’s Cooking Gas Crisis Could Persist for Years
- European Buyers Eye Canadian LNG to Diversify Supply
- Repsol Returns to Venezuela With Ambitious Production Growth Plan
