Weak ruble was a friend of Surgutneftegaz

In the first half of the year, the company's profit from exchange rate differences amounted to 225.2 billion rubles.
Surgutneftegaz's revenues under IFRS in the first half of 2018 increased by 25% to 856.8 billion rubles, net profit quadrupled to 390 billion rubles, the company said in a statement.

The main increase in net profit was provided by income from revaluation of exchange differences - 225.2 billion rubles. Without taking them into account, the company's net profit would be almost 60% less - 198.5 billion rubles. But even this was twice as much as in the first half of 2017 (cleared of a similar indicator).

The liquid assets of Surgutneftegaz (short-term and long-term deposits, as well as the amount of funds in the accounts) make up 2.9 trillion rubles as of the end of June 2018, which is 12.5% ​​more than at the end of 2017.

 
What part of deposits and funds in the accounts is in currency, and what in rubles, Surgutneftegaz does not disclose. But it reflects in the statements that the income from the exchange rate differences amounted to 328.5 billion rubles for the first half of 2018, while the expenditure was 103.4 billion rubles.

From January to June, the ruble depreciated against the dollar by 8.4% to 62.5 rubles, and to the euro - by 5.6% to 73.05 rubles.

Last year the company wrote in the report that one of the main risks for it is the currency one: "The group's financial assets are placed in deposit accounts primarily in US dollars." Thus, a change in the ruble's exchange rate to foreign currency could worsen the financial performance of Surgutneftegaz, the report said.

In 2017 and in 2016. "Surgutneftegaz" recorded losses on a stronger ruble in total of 560 billion rubles., It follows from a comparison of documents. Now the company does not even consider currency risk - "the group's activities are subject to various financial risks, including market, credit and liquidity risk," the company writes.

The company benefited from rising oil prices and the weakening of the ruble, increased production due to the weakening of the conditions for the OPEC + deal for Russia, recalls Aton analyst Alexander Kornilov.