FSU: Rosneft posts 55% jump in second-quarter profits

Russia’s state-run Rosneft has posted a 55% quarter-on-quarter jump in its April-June net profit, with the company attributing the rebound to stronger international oil prices.
The oil major said on August 13 that its second-quarter profit amounted to RUB233bn ($3.18bn), up from RUB149bn ($2.03bn) in the January-March period.
Rosneft’s first-half income of RUB382bn ($5.2bn) marks a return to form for the company, after it posted a RUB113bn ($1.54bn) loss in the same period of 2020.
The company’s revenue in the first six months of 2021 climbed by almost 40% year on year to RUB3.9 trillion ($53.11bn) compared with RUB2.8 trillion ($38.13bn) in the same period of 2020.
Commenting on the results, Rosneft CEO Igor Sechin said: “In the reporting period, despite all the challenges stemming from the COVID-19 pandemic, we managed to ensure continuity of our business and demonstrated strong financial and operating results.”
The stronger financials came despite a nearly 10% slide in the company’s first-half oil and gas production. Rosneft said its production amounted to 4.87mn barrels of oil equivalent per day, down 9.9% from the 5.4mn boepd produced in the same period of 2020.
Most of this lost production was in the January-March period, with Rosneft noting that it produced 4.97mn boepd in April-June, down 1.5% year on year but up 4.4% quarter on quarter.
Rosneft said: “[Second quarter] 2021 liquids production reached 354.7mn barrels (47.8mn tonnes) having increased by 5.1% QoQ due to the gradual restrictions easing under the OPEC+ agreement.”
In terms of the company’s upstream efforts, Sechin highlighted ongoing work at the Rospan gas project and Vostok oil project.
He said two production lines had been brought onstream at Rospan, increasing production to the point where the asset had become the company’s largest gas producer. At its “flagship” Vostok oil project, meanwhile, Rosneft is constructing six exploration wells and has started work on the project’s main infrastructure facilities.