By Vladimir Soldatkin and Olesya Astakhova
MOSCOW (Reuters) -Russian energy giant Rosneft’s net income jumped to a record 883 billion roubles ($11.7 billion) last year as demand recovered from pandemic-hit 2020, but the rebound was smaller than expected and sent its share price lower early on Friday.
The sixfold earnings increase was below forecasts of more than 1 trillion roubles from some analysts, sending Rosneft shares down 1.3% to 562.50 roubles in early Moscow trade. However, the shares were still outperforming the broader Russian stock market, which is beset by wider geopolitical concerns.
Global energy companies’ profits have rebounded from a sharp decline in 2020, when planes were grounded and cars remained off the roads to observe global lockdowns aimed at containing the COVID-19 pandemic.
Oil and natural gas prices also reached multi-year highs last year as demand recovered.
Rosneft, in which BP owns a 19.75% stake, said that net income had recovered after an 80% fall in 2020. It revised its 2020 tally to 132 billion roubles from an initially reported 147 billion.
BP this week reported that it rebounded to an annual profit of $12.85 billion after a large loss in 2020.
Analysts said they would want to hear an update on Rosneft’s giant Vostok oil project, which is expected to start shipping oil via the Northern Sea route in the Arctic in 2024.
The company, which accounts for about 40% of Russia’s oil production, said its average oil and gas condensate output rose by 2.3% to 3.91 million barrels per day last year.
($1 = 75.2441 roubles)
(Reporting by Vladimir Soldatkin, Olesya Astakhova and Maria KiselyovaEditing by David Goodman and Jason Neely)
