Diamonds Lift Lukoil 1H Profits
Russian independent Lukoil released sharply higher 1H 2017 earnings, buoyed by a diamond mining divestment.
Net profit attributable to Lukoil shareholders was rubles 201bn ($3.43bn), up 91% year-on-year, helped by a gain on the sale completed in May 2017 of its Arkhangelskgeoldobycha diamond mining subsidiary that it bought in 2000 and by non-cash foreign exchange gains.
Excluding these, 1H 2017 profit nonetheless grew by 6.8% to rubles 176bn ($3bn).
Lukoil agreed in last December to divest its Arkhangel-based rough diamonds business, including the Grib mine, to Russia's Otkritie Holding for $1.45bn.
Lukoil reported two weeks earlier that its 1H 2017 gas production increased by 9.4% to 13.4bn m3, with its 2Q gas output higher too, helped by the launch in early 2017 of facilities at its Pyakyakhinskoe field in Russia and by new gas in Uzbekistan.
Mark Smedley