MOSCOW, Feb 12 (Reuters) - Russia's largest liquefied natural gas producer (LNG) Novatek said on Wednesday its 2024 net profit increased by 6.5% to 493.5 billion roubles ($5.18 billion), as production rose.
Novatek has been a focal point of the Western sanctions against Russia over the conflict in Ukraine. Its new project Arctic LNG 2 tentatively began production of LNG on the Gydan peninsula, which juts into the Kara Sea, in December 2023, but has struggled to sell the product.
Western sanctions prompted foreign shareholders to freeze participation and Novatek to issue a force majeure to warn it would not be able to honour contractual obligations in relation to Arctic LNG 2.
The company also said on Wednesday revenue rose to 1.55 trillion roubles in 2024 from 1.37 trillion roubles in 2023.
Its debt jumped by 15.4 times to 141.6 billion roubles last year, while daily hydrocarbons production rose by almost 3% to 1.82 million barrels of oil equivalent.
Normalized profit attributable to shareholders, excluding the effect of foreign exchange gains (losses), rose 4.6% to 553.4 billion roubles in 2024.
($1 = 95.2000 roubles)
Reporting by Vladimir Soldatkin Editing by Tomasz Janowski
Source: Reuters