OAO Lukoil, Russia’s second-largest oil producer, said profit increased 67 percent in the second quarter after crude prices climbed, outweighing a decline in output.
Net income rose to $3.25 billion from $1.95 billion, the Moscow-based company said in a statement today. That beat an average estimate of $2.95 billion for adjusted net income from 12 analysts surveyed by Bloomberg News.
Lukoil is seeking to expand internationally as traditional western Siberian fields age and the northern Yuzhnoye Khylchuyu deposit developed with ConocoPhillips yields less crude than expected. Total production fell 4.7 percent to 2.14 million barrels of oil equivalent a day. Oil output declined about 5.5 percent to 1.84 million barrels a day. Gas-available-for-sale output rose 0.3 percent to 4.53 billion cubic meters, the company said.
“We are looking forward to the company’s updated 2011-12 upstream output guidance,” UralSib Financial Corp. said in a note yesterday. “We continue to prefer Lukoil to Rosneft, as we like the former’s cash generation capacity and international upstream potential.” OAO Rosneft is Russia’s biggest oil producer.
Urals crude, Russia’s main export blend of oil, climbed 48 percent in the second quarter, averaging $113.73 a barrel in northwestern Europe, Lukoil said.
Lukoil’s exports dropped 15 percent to 62.1 million barrels in the second quarter as domestic refining rose and output fell.
To contact the reporter on this story: Stephen Bierman in Moscow at sbierman1@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Will Kennedy at wkennedy3@bloomberg.net
