8 Dec 2009 13:16

Lukoil halves GAAP earnings in 9M to $5.285 bln, below forecast

MOSCOW. Dec 8 (Interfax) - Lukoil closed January-September 2009 with net profit of $5.285 billion to US GAAP, half the figure for the same period of last year, the oil producer said in a statement.

Lukoil said profit fell as hydrocarbon prices halved.

Analysts said in a consensus forecast that they expected the company to turn profit of $5.379 billion in the 9M.

Q3 earnings fell 41.2% year-on-year to $2.0256 billion. Analysts had forecast $2.15 billion.

EBITDA was $10.237 billion in the 9M. Revenues from sales were $56.802 billion. Free cash flow was $1.442 billion in the nine months of 2009, including $1.297 million in the third quarter compared to -$84 million in the second quarter.

The Company's tax expenses totalled $15.3 billion in the nine months of 2009, including income tax expense of $1.6 billion.

Lifting costs per boe of production in the nine months of 2009 decreased by 19% y-o-y, to $3.39 from $4.16 in the nine months of 2008.

Capital expenditures including non-cash transactions in the nine months of 2009 were $4.7 billion which is 40% lower y-o-y. Reduction of capital expenditures was in line with the anti-crisis program developed by the Company in the beginning of the year.

LUKOIL Group total hydrocarbon production available for sale reached 2,214 th. boe per day in the nine months of 2009, which is a 1.1% increase y-o-y. Crude oil production by LUKOIL Group increased by 3.3% y-o-y to 1,978 th. barrels per day.

Crude oil production of LUKOIL Group in the nine months of 2009 totalled 73.28 mln tonnes. At the same time, crude oil output from the Yuzhnaya Khylchuya field in Timan-Pechora, brought into production in the third quarter of 2008, reached 5.1 mln tons. Natural and petroleum gas output of LUKOIL Group available for sale was 10.94 bcm: output as part of international projects totalled 3.40 bcm (grew by 15.1% y-o-y), output inRussia was down 23.3% y-o-y to 7.54 bcm.

Throughputs at the Company's refineries (including its share in throughput at the ISAB and TRN refining complexes) increased by 10.9% y-o-y in the nine months of 2009 and reached 46.55 mln tons. Throughputs at the Company's refineries in Russia increased by 0.9% y-o-y, throughputs at the Company's international refineries grew by 49.1% y-o-y.

Crude oil exports in the nine months of 2009 increased by 10.3% to 31.8 million tons (853 th. barrels per day), exports of petroleum products grew by 10.5% y-o-y to 21.3 million tons. LUKOIL sold 112.5 million tons of crude oil and petroleum products, which is 13.1% higher y-o-y.

LUKOIL said it was coping with the difficult macroeconomic situation and securing positive free cash flow thanks to implementing measures aimed at higher efficiency which were developed in the beginning of the year.

Long-term loan debt totaled $7.888 billion at the end of September. The loans mature in the 2009-2038 period. Approximately 17% of the long-term debt is secured with exports and fixed assets. The weighted-average interest rate on long-term loans from outside organizations was 2.79% annually on September 30, 2009 compared with 4.09% on December 31, 2008.