Statoil gets record profits but feels Corrib bite

http://www.aftenposten.noStatoil reported a 48 percent jump in third-quarter operating profit on Monday, boosted by high oil prices, but analysts had expected even more.
Earnings before interest and tax (EBIT) at Norway's biggest oil and gas producer rose to NOK 23.87 billion (USD 3.71 billion) in the July-to-September quarter from 16.09 billion in the same period last year.
The profit was a new record for operations, but was reported as disappointing by much of the financial media.
Analysts said Statoil's operating performance was slightly weaker than expected because the amount of oil and gas taken out of its fields and stocks had undershot production, but that this would correct itself in the following quarter.
The Nordic region's biggest industrial company by revenue stuck to its 2005 oil and gas production target of 1.175 million barrels of oil equivalent per day (boed) and a 2007 target of 1.4 million boed.
But Chief Executive Helge Lund told a news conference that delays on the big Snøhvit gas field in the Arctic and the Corrib gas field off Ireland would make the 2007 goals more challenging than before.
He said cost pressures in the industry would also make those goals more demanding, although the company repeated a 2007 production cost target of NOK 22 a barrel.