Russian LNG producer Novatek said its net profit rose more than two times in the first half of this year to almost $4 billion.
Novatek reported a profit attributable to shareholders of 341.7 billion roubles ($3.94 billion) in the six-month period, a rise of 119.5 percent compared to 155.6 billion rubles in the first half of 2023.
The company logged a net profit of about 463 billion roubles in 2023, while it did not publish its financial results in 2022.
In the first half of this year, Novatek’s total revenues and normalized Ebitda, amounted to 752.4 billion roubles and 480.7 billion, respectively, representing increases of 17 percent and 15.6 percent as compared to the corresponding period in 2023, it said.
As previously reported, the company’s total hydrocarbon production rose 2.7 percent to 330.7 mmboe in the first half of this year, while its gas sales dropped 3.3 percent year-on-year to 39.30 bcm.
LNG projects
Novatek currently exports LNG via its 17.4 mtpa Yamal LNG plant and the mid-scale facility in Vysotsk with a nameplate capacity of 660,000 tons.
The firm is also building the 19.8 mtpa Arctic LNG 2 plant and in August last year completed the installation of the first of three trains which will serve the project.
According to reports in Russia, Novatek started production of LNG from this unit in December but it is not shipping LNG from the project due to US and EU sanctions and lack of vessels.
The first GBS, or train, has a capacity of about 6.6 mtpa, such as the the two other units which are under construction.
The resource base of the Arctic LNG 2 project is the Utrenneye field located on the Gydan Peninsula in the YaNAO, about 70 km from Novatek’s Yamal LNG project across the Gulf of Ob.
Novatek is the LNG project’s operator with a 60 percent stake, TotalEnergies owns 10 percent, while CNPC and CNOOC of China have 10 percent, each.
Japan Arctic LNG, a consortium of Mitsui & Co and Jogmec, owns a 10 percent stake in the project as well.
In January, TotalEnergies initiated a force majeure process on the Novatek-operated Arctic LNG 2 project in Russia due to sanctions.
In March 2022, TotalEnergies said it would no longer provide capital and book proven reserves for the Arctic LNG 2 project due to the uncertainty created by the technological and financial sanctions on the ability to carry out the development.
After that, TotalEnergies wrote down its 19.4 percent stake in Novatek and withdrew the representatives of the company from the board of Novatek.