Equinor raises dividend, capital expenditure as Q4 profit lags

OSLO (Reuters) - Norwegian oil and gas firm Equinor raised its quarterly dividend and plans to boost capital spending in 2019 as it develops new fields in Brazil, the company said on Wednesday.

Equinor's adjusted operating earnings before interest and tax rose to $4.39 billion (£3.4 billion) in the fourth quarter from $3.96 billion during the same period of 2018, lagging a forecast of $4.8 billion in a Reuters poll of analysts.

(Reporting by Nerijus Adomaitis, editing by Terje Solsvik)