Rosneft Board of Directors approved the plan of Company's financial and economic activities for 2018-2019 on an in-person meeting in Sochi.
Based on the actual production and financial data for the 9 months of 2017 and the management forecast for the fourth quarter, Rosneft management expects to implement the approved Company's financial and business operations plan for 2017.
Despite the continuing volatility of the macroeconomic environment and increasing fiscal pressures on the industry, the Company managed to deliver on the key parameters of the approved business plan, maintain high operational efficiency and increase the pace of the Company's development through the implementation of a number of highly effective investment projects during the past year.
Rosneft continued to strengthen its position both on the Russian and international markets in 2017, including through the successful implementation of a series of asset acquisition transactions and participation in auctions for a number of licensed sites. In particular, the Company has accomplished a new oil production center project on the basis on the Erginsky cluster in Western Siberia. Having successfully completed the integration of the acquired Bashneft group, the Company already achieved the synergy exceeding 45 billion rubles this year.
In the third quarter of the year, Rosneft successfully closed the deal to enter Essar Oil Ltd, one of the largest Refining, Commerce and Logistics companies operating in India, one of the world's fastest growing markets. The implementation of this project, as well as gaining an expanded access to substantial crude resources of the Kurdistan and Venezuela fields provided a stable basis for creating additional value through the integrated use of various oil baskets, crude and oil products trading.
Rosneft’s plan of financial and economic activities for 2018-2019 is aimed at implementing the key objectives of the “Rosneft-2022” Strategy, considering the synergetic effect of assets acquired in 2017, commissioning of new high-quality mining projects on the north of the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous District, the Vankor cluster and Evenkia and completion of a number of high-performance facilities under the Company's refineries modernization program.
The plan ensures the balance of funding sources for the investment program, planned loan portfolio repayments and dividends in accordance with the approved dividend policy of the Company. The production program of Rosneft also takes into account the possibility of production volumes maneuvering in 2018 and debt load optimization.
Commenting on the results of the Board meeting, Rosneft Chief Executive Officer Igor Sechin said: “Rosneft once again proved its capabilities to implement plans effectively and timely despite the persistence of serious volatility in world markets and the increasing illegal economic and technological sanctions imposed against the Company by a number of countries. These challenges are creating a unique development potential to deliver significant growth in the shareholder value of the Company, assets investment prospects increase and contribution to the growth of the Russian Federation's GDP under the updated “Rosneft-2022” Strategy.”
