equinor asa on wednesday posted higherthanexpected thirdquarter adjusted earnings and raised the size of its share buyback as it benefited from the higher oil and gas prices during the quarter the company which is 67owned by the norwegian state said adjusted earningsits preferred measurerose to 977 billion from 780 million against 836 billion expected in a companycompiled consensus it reported a net profit of 141 billion from a loss of 213 million a year earlier as revenue more than doubled to 2311 billion analysts polled by factset had expected a net profit of 247 billion on revenue of 2228 billion the current unprecedented level and volatility in european gas prices underlines the uncertainty in the marketwe have taken steps to increase our gas exports to respond to the high demand chief executive anders opedal said equinor announced a thirdquarter dividend of 018 and said it has decided to increase the size of the second tranche of the share buyback program to 1 billion from an indicative level of 300 million the company delivered total equity production of 1996 million barrels of oil equivalent a day in the quarter from 1994 million barrels last year