The IFRS net profits of NOVATEK for 2015 to be distributed among the company’s shareholders grew two times to RUB74.4 billion (USD1.092 billion) from RUB37.3 billion (USD0.548 billion) in 2014, the company reported.

The profit was significantly impacted by the effect of the foreign exchange rate and the change in the value of non-commodity financial instruments (including at NOVATEK’s joint ventures), as well as the entity’s disposition of its interests in certain joint ventures. As a result of these factors, the company’s adjusted profit to be distributed among the company’s shareholders in 2015 and 2014 totaled RUB135.0 billion (USD1.981 billion) and RUB104.8 billion (USD1.539 billion) respectively.

The company’s sales revenue increased by 32.9 percent year-on-year to RUB475.3 billion (USD6.988 billion), largely due to a record increase in the sales volumes of liquids, the growth in natural gas sales prices, as well as the increase in the net sales prices for liquid production in rouble terms, which were driven by a higher dollar-to-rouble exchange rate and lower export duty rates.

In 2015, the company’s normalized earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (“EBITDA”) (including its share in the EBITDA of the joint ventures) increased by 34.4 percent to RUB214.5 billion (USD3.147). The EBITDA’s growth resulted from, among other things, a higher share of liquid hydrocarbons in the company’s overall sales volume mix, as well as an increase in sales volumes of high value-added petroleum products from the Ust-Luga Complex.

NOVATEK’s free cash flow increased by 67.2 percent to RUB82.3 billion (USD1.210 billion) as a result of a 19.4-percent growth in operating cash flow and an 18.5-percent decrease in cash used for capital expenditures, as measured against the figures from 2014.

NOVATEK is the second largest natural gas producer in the Russian Federation after Gazprom. In 2015, NOVATEK increased natural gas production by 9.3 percent year-on-year to 67.91 billion cubic meters (bcm).

The IFRS profits of NOVATEK to be distributed to the company’s shareholders for the first half of 2015 increased by 32.7 percent year-on-year to RUB73 billion (USD1.071 billion). In the second quarter alone, the company’s profit to be distributed among the company’s shareholders grew 31.2 percent year-on-year to RUB41.9 billion (USD615 million).

According to AK&M Information Agency’s DataCapital information retrieval system, the RAS net profits of NOVATEK for the first nine months of 2015 grew by 24 percent to RUB56.778 billion (USD833 million) from RUB45.821 billion (USD673 million) the year before. Revenues increased by 27 percent to RUB294.807 billion (USD4.325 billion) from RUB231.481 billion (USD3.398 billion).