OSLO - Equinor's second-quarter profits declined by 4% year on year as natural gas prices fell, the energy company reported on Wednesday, although the results still outperformed analysts' expectations.

The Norwegian oil and gas producer's adjusted earnings before tax for April-June eased to $7.48 billion from $7.80 billion a year earlier, beating the $6.96 billion predicted in a poll of 22 analysts compiled by Equinor.

"Our operational performance continued to be strong through the quarter," CEO Anders Opedal said in a statement.

Compared to the same quarter last year, the realised European piped gas price decreased due to mild temperatures and lower market prices driven by high storage levels and reduced demand, Equinor said.

The Dutch TTF front-month gas contract, Europe's benchmark, averaged 31.76 euros per megawatt hour (MWh), or $10.02 per mmbtu, in the second quarter, down from 34.86 euros/MWh, or $11.13 per mmbtu a year earlier.

Equinor lowered its renewable energy production growth forecast for 2024 to 70% from a forecast doubling previously, amid a delay to the start-up of the 1.2 GW Dogger Bank A offshore wind farm in the UK to 2025 from late 2024.

The group maintained a projection that its oil and gas output would be unchanged in 2024 from 2023 and kept a forecast for capital expenditure of $13 billion this year.

Equinor in the second quarter pumped 2.05 million barrels of oil equivalent per day (mboed), slightly above expectations in the analyst poll for 2.03 mboed and up from 1.99 mboed a year ago.

The company in 2022 overtook Russia's Gazprom as Europe's biggest supplier of natural gas when Moscow's invasion of Ukraine upended decades-long energy ties.

Equinor's share price has declined by 10.4% so far this year, lagging a 1% rise in the wider index of major European energy stocks.

(Reporting by Nora Buli, editing by Terje Solsvik)