| But this does not prevent Russian oil companies from entering new markets. Russia's two largest oil companies - LUKOIL and YUKOS - yesterday held their annual shareholder meetings. But if Vagit Alekperov mainly had to explain the financial results for the past year, Mikhail Khodorkovsky spoke about plans for the future, both near and very distant.
Many shareholders and analysts were primarily interested in why LUKOIL's net profit, according to international reporting, decreased by 36% (from $3.3 billion in 2000 to $2.1 billion). Along with the unfavorable price environment on the global oil market, the company's first vice president, Sergei Kukura, also named other reasons: an increase in the tax burden and tariffs for pumping oil, as well as the high level of costs from acquired foreign enterprises, in particular from the American Getty Petroleum. The financial results were also significantly affected by the increase in debt burden. LUKOIL last year attracted $938 million from Russian and Western investors, as a result of which the company's debt obligations increased over the year by $800 million - to $3.7 billion. Meanwhile, analysts are not inclined to pay too much attention to the decline in profits in the past year, they believe that LUKOIL has launched a cost reduction program and therefore the figures for the first half of this year will be much more important.
YUKOS's profit over the past year, according to international reporting standards, also decreased, but to a lesser extent. Net profit amounted to 104.664 billion rubles. compared to 111.303 billion in 2000. Yukos Chief Financial Officer Bruce Missamore said that the first quarter's performance will be significantly worse than for the same period last year for all Russian oil companies without exception due to a sharp drop in global and domestic oil prices. “Russian companies suffered even a little more than Western companies due to the very sharp decline in domestic oil prices in the first quarter,” Mr. Missamore said, declining to name Yukos’s preliminary first-quarter results (they will be published in the second half of July). . However, he said, YUKOS will be able to partially compensate for the results of the first quarter by increasing oil production: the company plans to increase it by 20% compared to 2001 - up to 70 million tons.
At the same time, YUKOS is increasing its export volumes. According to YUKOS RM President Nikolai Bychkov, the company will export 6.5 million tons of oil in the third quarter, which is 700 thousand tons more than in the second. In early July, the first 200 thousand tons of Yukos oil in the United States will arrive on the east coast of America. YUKOS Chairman of the Board Mikhail Khodorkovsky said yesterday that the results of trial oil deliveries to the United States will become known by the end of July: “Transportation of raw materials by a supertanker makes these deliveries profitable at a price of 18-19 dollars per barrel, and not at 25 dollars, as previously thought . In any case, we need to wait for the results of the first delivery.” However, he noted that political events “certainly have an impact” on the decision to supply oil to the United States.
In September-October, Nikolai Bychkov promised, YUKOS will make a decision on the construction of an oil pipeline to China. According to him, a feasibility study for the construction of the oil pipeline will be prepared in early July for study by YUKOS and other project participants (the Ministry of Energy of the Russian Federation, Transneft, the State Planning Committee of the People's Republic of China and the China National Petroleum Corporation). At the first stage of operation of the oil pipeline (2005-2010), annual supplies of Russian oil to China in the amount of 20 million tons are envisaged, at the second stage - up to 30 million tons. Mr. Bychkov confirmed that YUKOS considers the construction of a pipeline to Russian Far Eastern ports unpromising. Nikolay GORELOV |
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