Lukoil will be profitable in next few years, despite OPEC+ restrictions - Alekperov
PERM. Sept 8 (Interfax) - Lukoil will be profitable in the next few years, despite the restrictions on oil production associated with the OPEC+ agreement, the Russian oil company's president, Vagit Alekperov said on Tuesday.
"We're full of optimism that in the next few years we'll be profitable, despite the restrictions on oil production we put in place under OPEC+," Alekperov told reporters in Perm.
He recalled that Lukoil curbed oil production by 13%.
At the end of August, Lukoil vice president for finance Pavel Zhdanov said that under the OPEC+ deal Lukoil cut oil production in Russia by approximately 310,000 barrels per day from May 1, 2020 compared to average daily output in the first quarter of 2020, but then increased oil production in Russia by around 20,000 bpd in July, and by about another 60,000 bpd at the start of August.
Zhdanov said that the company currently has 230,000 barrels per day of spare capacity. "We continue to maintain production potential, and currently have about 230,000 bpd of spare capacity for oil output in Russia, meaning that we could quickly ramp up production fully and ensure its further sustainable growth," he said.
It was reported earlier that the Lukoil group's average daily hydrocarbon production, not including the West Qurna 2 project in Iraq, was 2.155 million bpd of oil equivalent in the first half of 2020, down 8.4% from the same period of 2019.
Alekperov also said on Tuesday that the company has weathered the coronavirus pandemic well.
"We have experience overcoming crisis situations, both in the 1990s and in 2008, 2009, 2014, and for us 2020 was not some revelation, so the company ended the first half of the year with a profit. Now, in the third quarter, we have even increased sales to Russian consumers compared to 2019," Alekperov said. Gasoline sales, for example, have increased by 3% year-on-year in the third quarter, he said.