Sechin briefs Medvedev on Rosneft's record year
MOSCOW. Jan 31 (Interfax) - Rosneft President Igor Sechin has briefed Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev on the oil major's record achievements in 2013.
"We produced 240 million tonnes of oil equivalent," he said, adding that production was 70% higher than in 2012.
"On a global scale, that is the number one result for a public company. Organic growth was 4%: the growth is not only from acquisition of assets, but the result of efficient operations," Sechin said.
"Effective geological exploration brought an increase [in reserves] of 250 million tonnes. Six new fields, 70 new horizons were discovered. An enormous amount of work was performed on our country's shelf. We carried out seismic surveying on 31,000 running kilometers," he said.
Rosneft paid in 2.72 trillion rubles to the budget in 2013. "We, in accordance with your instruction, hope to increase that a bit in 2014," he said, adding that he had in mind payments to the budget of over 3 trillion rubles.
Rosneft also received 50 new patents last year. "Investment in innovation and R&D totaled 86 billion rubles for the year," he said.
Sechin also reported on the situation with minority shareholders in the company Rosneft acquired last year, TNK-BP (currently RN Holding), who claimed that their interests had been infringed.
"Your initiative," Sechin told Medvedev, "which we implemented, was supported and our voluntary offer netted 98.32% of the shares held by the minorities, including the international funds. Understandably, some of them wanted to realize higher earnings. The purchases were made at the market price, taking into account all charges, and everyone was satisfied."
"As for the veterans of the industry, they were offered Rosneft shares for their TNK-BP shares. A fairly large number of shareholders, who were there at the beginning of the initial privatization, are now shareholders in Rosneft," he said.
The company's capitalization is growing, he said. "In the past year, we had approximately 18% growth and plan to maintain that pace," he said.
