OAO Lukoil said third-quarter profit advanced 40 percent as Russia’s largest non-state oil producer benefited from hedging after crude prices fell from a July record. Net income rose to $3.47 billion, or $4.09 a share, from $2.48 billion, or $3 a share, in the same period last year, the Moscow-based company said yesterday in a statement.
That beat the $3.16 billion median estimate of six analysts surveyed by Bloomberg News. “Results came in much stronger than expected, the main reason being the company posted a hedging gain of $623 million in the third quarter,” Igor Kurinnyy, an oil and gas analyst with ING Groep NV, said by telephone from London.
Lukoil had a $719 million loss through hedging practices in the first half of 2008, as Urals crude export prices grew, which contracted to $96 million in the first nine months of the year, the company said.
(KATHIMERINI, 12/12/2008)