Rosneft Q1 Net Profit Soars

09.06.2008 (14:36)

Rosneft's net profit under US GAAP grew more than sevenfold to $2.564bn in the first quarter of 2008 from $358m in January-March 2007.

Revenue more than doubled to $16.368bn, from $8.22bn a year earlier. EBITDA jumped 3.2 times to $4.698bn from $1.444bn in Q1 2007.

Rosneft attributes the rise in its financial results to higher daily oil output (a 23.9 percent increase, including organic growth of 6.3 percent), improvements in vertical integration as a result of the acquisition of oil refining assets in 2007, efficient control over spending, as well as higher prices of oil, oil products and natural gas. Meanwhile, the oil producer noted that the increase had been curbed by a rise in the tax burden (tax spending reached $8.904bn in Q1 2008 compared to $4.715bn in the same quarter a year earlier), a 13-31 percent increase in transport tariffs, and the ruble real effective exchange rate's 20.8 percent growth against the dollar.

Commenting on Rosneft's financial results, the company's President Sergei Bogdanchikov said that increasing sales of products with a high added value, efficient control over spending, narrowing debts and maintaining a high rate of organic production growth would remain the oil producer's key priorities, reports RBC.