By Anna Shiryaevskaya
June 2 (Bloomberg) -- OAO Lukoil, Russia’s biggest non- state oil producer, more than doubled profit in the first quarter from a year earlier after rising crude prices offset falling production from western Siberian fields.
Net income rose to $2.05 billion from $905 million, the Moscow-based company said today in a statement. That beat the $1.78 billion average estimate of eight analysts surveyed by Bloomberg.
The rise in crude prices more than compensated for a drop in Lukoil’s oil output, while the company reined in some spending. Urals, Russia’s benchmark export crude blend, for northwest Europe averaged $75.30 a barrel in the first quarter, up 71 percent from a year earlier, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
The profit numbers were a “surprise,” Svetlana Grizan, an oil analyst at VTB Capital, said by telephone. “Lukoil exercised more efficient control over costs.”
Lukoil shares advanced 2.6 percent to 1,549.87 rubles in Moscow, their highest close since May 18.
Sales rose 62 percent to $23.9 billion, while oil output fell 0.3 percent to 24.1 million tons (1.96 million barrels a day) on flagging western Siberian fields.
“Production in west Siberia has fallen and will be falling for all companies,” Lukoil Vice President Leonid Fedun said at a presentation to investors and reporters in Moscow.
Production Forecast
Lukoil expects its oil and gas output to increase by 1 percent to 2 percent this year, with crude figures largely depending on tax breaks and the use of technology to shore up production at western Siberian fields, Fedun said.
The Moscow-based producer with the most overseas assets among Russian oil companies has looked abroad for profit and expansion because of Russia’s tax burden and the preference state companies enjoy in gaining new projects.
“We focused on investments outside Russia which are more interesting by profit and productivity,” Fedun said. “Any limitation of access to fields is archaic.”
Lukoil plans to start drilling in Iraq next year, expecting to book 8 million to 10 million metric tons of crude a year from the West Qurna-2 project it develops with Statoil ASA, Fedun said. In West Africa, Lukoil is seeking to develop reserves that exceed the initial geological reserves of the North Sea or western Siberia, he said.
Production of gas available for sale rose 24 percent to 4.72 billion cubic meters, and output of refined products at Lukoil’s plants increased 8.3 percent to 14.7 million tons.
Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization, which is a measure of profitability, rose 54 percent to $3.7 billion. Free cash flow surged more than six- fold to $1.4 billion, as Lukoil held capital expenditures at $1.47 billion, about the same level as a year earlier, the company said.
Operating expenses rose 44 percent to $1.77 billion, while excise and export payments increased 82 percent to $4.58 billion.
--Editors: Rob Verdonck, Randall Hackley
To contact the reporter on this story: Anna Shiryaevskaya in Moscow at ashiryaevska@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Will Kennedy at wkennedy3@bloomberg.net
No comments:
Post a Comment