Rosneft misses Q1 profit forecasts by wide margin

Rosneft, the world’s largest listed oil producer, missed analyst estimates with a marginal increase in profit for the first quarter to Rub13bn ($222m), as a rise in oil prices was undercut by a stronger rouble.

The majority Russian state-owned company said revenue for the first three months of the year rose 34.5 percent compared to the same period last year, to Rub1.41tn, as production rose 11 per cent thanks to the acquisition of former rival Bashneft and output from new drilling sites. Net profit, however, rose only 8.3 per cent.

Igor Sechin, Rosneft chief executive, said the “environment remains difficult: continuing world commodity markets volatility, rouble appreciation – all of this impacted the Company’s financial results”.

Analysts had expected Rosneft to post net profit of 22bn roubles, according to a survey conducted by Reuters.

Rosneft produced 70.3m tonnes of oil equivalent in the first quarter, or 5.79m barrels a day. While higher than in the same period of 2016, that was 70,000 barrels a day less than in October 2016, due in part to the company’s compliance with the deal between Moscow and OPEC to reduce global oil output in a bid to push up prices.

While oil prices have sagged over the past month, in part due to strong US production, the Brent benchmark was roughly 50 per cent higher in the first quarter of 2017 versus the same period in 2016.