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STATOIL

Statoil surprises with strong summer profits

State-backed Norwegian oil giant Statoil turned in surprisingly strong profits for the third-quarter on Wednesday. The group announced a net figure of 14.3 billion kroner (1.76 billion euro, $2.42 billion).

Statoil surprises with strong summer profits
Oil Rig Statfjord B - Harald Pettersen Statoil
The result, about the same as a year ago, compares with forecasts by analysts polled by Dow Jones newswires who had broadly expected a net profit of 11.67 billion kroner.
   
The company said in a statement that the quarterly results had benefited from a $2.65-billion transaction with OMV.
   
But the results had also suffered from impairment losses related to refinery activities, reflecting lower margins and a challenging outlook.
   
Adjusted earnings were stable at 40.4 billion kroner after a 1.0-percent increase from last year's 40.0 billion kroner, whereas revenues grew by 2.0 percent to 169.8 billion kroner.
   
"We are producing as planned, and maintain our production guidance for 2013," chief executive Helge Lund said.
   
Oil prices in kroner have increased by 4.0 percent in a year, whereas the price of gas has dropped by 9 percent.
   
Statoil produced in the third quarter 1.85 million barrels of oil equivalent (boe) per day compared with production in the same period of last year of 1.81 million boe per day.
   
The group does not expect this year to attain the production levels of 2012, of slightly more than 2.0 million boe per day.
   
But it forecast a rebound in the coming years, the long-term objective for 2020 fixed at more than 2.5 million boe per day.
   
In the third quarter, Statoil welcomed the Bay du Nord discovery off Canada, the world's largest oil discovery this year, with between 300 million and 600 million barrels of oil recoverable.
   
The Norwegian state holds 67 percent of the shares of Statoil, which expects to complete about 60 exploration wells in 2013, with an overall investment of about $19 billion in exploration for the entire year.

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ELECTION

Albert Rivera resigns as Ciudadanos leader after Spain election drubbing and bows out of politics altogether

Just 18 months ago, Albert Rivera was being compared to France's Emmanuel Macron and Canada's Justin Trudeau, was feted as kingmaker in parliament and tipped to be a future prime minister.

Albert Rivera resigns as Ciudadanos leader after Spain election drubbing and bows out of politics altogether
His bared all for his first campaign poster in 2006 and resigned on Monday. Photo: Ciudadanos/ AFP

But on Monday, the leader of Spain's Ciudadanos, Albert  stepped down after the business-friendly party suffered a drubbing in a repeat general election. 

The party, which has been rocked by internal divisions over strategy, won just 10 seats in the 350-seat parliament in Sunday's polls which were marked by a surge in support for far-right party Vox, down from 57 seats in the previous ballot in April.   

“In coherence with who I am, I don't think it's surprising that I resign today. It's the responsible thing to do,” he said adding he was also stepping down as a member of parliament and abandoning politics.

“The time has come to serve other people, to serve my parents, to serve my daughter who I have spent less time with than I should have,” he added after meeting with his party's executive committee.

Acting Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez's Socialists won the most seats in Sunday's election but once again fell short of an absolute majority in parliament, prolonging months of deadlock.

Several top Ciudadanos figures resigned in the lead up to the election in protest over deals the party struck with upstart Vox to allow it to govern in several regions and cities along with the main opposition Popular Party.

Rivera, 39, had led Ciudadanos since he founded it in 2006 as a regional party in Catalonia which focused on fighting separatism and defending Spanish unity. 

He burst onto the Catalan political scene in a breath of fresh air, vowing to fight corruption and posing naked on campaign posters to “lay politics bare”. 

The party soared in the polls when it went national in 2014 on a market-friendly, anti-corruption platform which sought to wipe out the traditional left-right divide and it entered parliament the following year.

Rivera, a former water polo player who worked at a bank before entering politics, recently moved the party to the right in an attempt to make Ciudadanos the country's main conservative party, and attacked Sanchez after having failed to form a coalition with him in 2016.

Just 18 months ago, he was being compared to France's Emmanuel Macron and Canada's Justin Trudeau and was feted as kingmaker in parliament and quite possibly as a  future prime minister.

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