Russia's Gazprom Neft has posted across-the-board improvements in the period between January and September this year, compared to the corresponding period of 2020, as the state- controlled oil producer increased oil and gas production to take advantage of higher prices.
According to the company’s latest consolidated financial report, Gazprom Neft recorded a 53% increase in gross revenues to 824 billion rubles ($11.6 billion) in the third quarter, compared with the the same period of the last year, with net income almost tripling to 137 billion rubles between July and September.
For the nine-months period, a similar 49% increase to 2.16 trillion rubles was seen in the top line compared with the last year.
The bottom line in the company’s financial report rose 10-fold to 357 billion rubles.
Net income was boosted by a 7% decline in capital investments to 279 billion rubles in the first three quarters, as several major projects were completed last year, according to Gazprom Neft.
Production of oil, condensate and other hydrocarbon liquids also moved up by 1% to over 45.9 million tonnes, or 1.23 million barrels per day, between January and September.
According to Gazprom Neft executives, the relaxation of Opec+ production quotas earlier this year permitted the company to fully bring back idle production capacity that it had to reserve in 2020.
Next year, the producer expects that new drilling, expansion at existing greenfields and better digital reservoir management may underpin a possible jump in oil and gas output of as much as 10%.
Meantime, the production of natural and by-pass gas moved up by over 6% to 34 billion cubic metres in the nine-month period of this year.
While oil production and export taxes in Russia rose significantly this year, trailing international energy prices, Gazprom Neft reported record high cash generation from its operations.
This in turn permitted the producer to reduce its long term debt by 25% to 533 billion rubles, while cash and equivalents line almost doubled to 450 billion rubles.
Speaking at a conference call from Moscow earlier on Thursday, Gazprom Neft executives also said that the company is currently rethinking its carbon reduction and other environmental commitments, with a new strategy until 2035 and company’s proposals on cutting its footprint expected to be released earlier in 2022.
Moving in this direction, the company has signed new charter agreements with Russian state run shipper Sovcomflot to employ liquefied natural gas-powered tankers to transport oil from its developments in the Russian Arctic region, it added.
