Equinor Posts $11.48 Billion Q2 Adjusted Earnings as Troll TWIN Gas Value Rises and BP Divests Bay du Nord Stake

Equinor reported second-quarter 2026 adjusted operating income of $11.48 billion, net income of $4.84 billion, and adjusted earnings per share of $1.33, with results published on July 22. The company's Norwegian Continental Shelf gas operations draw direct benefit from the European TTF benchmark, which climbed to €54.47 per megawatt-hour in early August 6 trading on ICE Futures Europe, per Trading Economics. That level converts to approximately $18.43 per MMBtu at Thursday's EUR/USD rate of 1.1539, and represents a 3.95 percent gain on the day.

Norway is Europe's largest pipeline gas supplier. Troll, the field at the center of Equinor's current expansion activity, delivers approximately 10 percent of Europe's total natural gas demand, per the project's published specifications. TTF prices at the time of Equinor's Q2 reporting in late July were already 91 percent above year-earlier levels, per Equinor's own market commentary, and have continued to firm since.

BP Divests Bay du Nord Stake to Equinor

On July 6, Equinor acquired BP's interest in the Bay du Nord deepwater project off Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada, increasing Equinor's controlling position as operator of the development. Financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed. Bay du Nord sits in the Flemish Pass Basin approximately 500 kilometres offshore Newfoundland at water depths exceeding 1,000 metres and ranks among Canada's most significant undeveloped deepwater oil discoveries.

The Bay du Nord acquisition fits a broader BP divestiture campaign targeting the company's $25 billion to $27 billion net debt. Earlier in 2026, ConocoPhillips acquired BP's 42 percent interest in the Kirkuk joint venture in Iraq, gaining access to 3 billion barrels of recoverable reserves. Separately, BP is advancing the sale of Castrol to Stonepeak Infrastructure Partners, a transaction that was progressing as of BP's Q2 2026 disclosure. Each transaction moves a non-core asset off BP's balance sheet while generating proceeds.

Troll TWIN Project Economics Rise 32 Percent Since June Sanction

In June 2026, Equinor and its joint venture partners sanctioned the Troll West Increased Gas Recovery North project, known as TWIN, at the Troll field. The $412 million development targets 11 billion standard cubic metres of additional gas production, equivalent to approximately 116 terawatt-hours of energy, with production beginning in 2028. Troll holds approximately 40 percent of all gas reserves on the Norwegian Continental Shelf.

Five entities share the TWIN project. Equinor Energy AS holds 30.55 percent as operator. Norway's Petoro AS represents the government's 55.93 percent stake. Shell's Norwegian subsidiary holds 8.19 percent, TotalEnergies EP Norge holds 3.69 percent, and ConocoPhillips Skandinavia holds 1.64 percent.

At the June 2026 TTF price of 41.34 euros per megawatt-hour, the project's 116 terawatt-hours carry a lifetime gross gas value of approximately 4.80 billion euros, the figure cited at sanction. At Thursday's TTF of 54.47 euros per megawatt-hour, that same volume is worth approximately 6.32 billion euros, an improvement of roughly 1.52 billion euros. Equinor's 30.55 percent share of the improvement amounts to approximately 464 million euros, equivalent to $536 million at Thursday's EUR/USD rate of 1.1539. Norway's Petoro, through its 55.93 percent stake, captures approximately 850 million euros of the gain.

EU Winter Storage Deficit Sustains Norwegian Gas Premium

European natural gas storage stood at 57 percent of capacity as of August 5, a 17-year seasonal low for the time of year, per Oil Authority's August 5 analysis. Equinor formally warned in late July that Europe will miss the EU's 80 percent storage target ahead of the winter heating season, when EU storage stood at 53 percent. Storage levels have partially recovered but remain well below seasonal norms and the EU-mandated target.

Norwegian gas flows through the Gassled pipeline system to Germany, Belgium, France, and the United Kingdom. Any unplanned Norwegian production outage this autumn would put additional upward pressure on TTF. The TTF-Henry Hub spread stood at $15.76 per MMBtu on Thursday, based on TTF at 54.47 euros per megawatt-hour and Henry Hub at $2.67 per MMBtu per Trading Economics. That spread averaged $2 to $4 per MMBtu through most of 2016 to 2021.