Bashneft Q4 2010 profit soars 106% to $570 mln

Russian mid-sized oil firm Bashneft’s fourth quarter 2010 net profit soared 106 percent compared to the previous quarter to $570 million to IFRS, the company said on Friday.

Fourth quarter revenue increased 2.5 percent to $3.595 billion, whilst revenue for the year 2010 jumped 97 percent to $13.341 billion.

Fourth quarter OIBDA increased 46 percent on the previous quarter to $992 million, whilst OIBDA for the year rose 139 percent to $2.981 billion.

On Thursday, Vladimir Yevtushenkov, chairman of Sistema, which holds 76.5 percent in Bashneft, said it could sell 25 percent plus one share in Bashneft to India’s ONGC oil and gas company this year.

Bashneft won a tender at the end of 2010 to develop the giant Trebs and Titov oilfield in the Arctic

Bashneft was the only company admitted to participate in auction for the Trebs and Titov, the most promising in the Timan-Pechora province with C1 reserves estimated at 78.9 million tons (578 million barrels) and 63.4 million tons (465 million barrels) of oil respectively.

The government disqualified all other contenders, including Russia’s largest private oil firm LUKoil, which has infrastructure in the region where the fields are located, and ONGC. Last Friday LUKoil’s head Vagit Alekperov said the company would pay Bashneft 4.7 billion rubles for 25.1 percent plus one share in the Trebs and Titov development project.

MOSCOW, April 22 (RIA Novosti)

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