Russia’s largest oil producer Rosneft announced a nearly 80 percent drop in net profit in 2020, following a record plunge in crude oil demand caused by the coronavirus pandemic. Thus, the company declared a net profit of USD 2 billion in 2020, down 79 percent compared to the previous year. Rosneft CEO Igor Sechin said in a statement that the results remained positive “despite the difficulties of 2020” and allowed for the payment of dividends to shareholders.
Rosneft’s results suffered in particular during the third quarter, mainly due to the sale of a 10 percent share in Rosneft’s giant Vostok Oil project in the Arctic to Singapore’s commodities trader Trafigura.
In 2020, Rosneft announced the start of operations for Vostok Oil which Sechin described as the “world’s largest new hydrocarbon project.” The head of Rosneft said production was expected to start in 2024 with the aim of reaching an output of 100 million tons by the start of the next decade.
