Ukrnafta achieves record-breaking profit, surpassing pre-war earnings

The net profit of Ukrnafta in January-April 2023 was UAH 7 billion ($190 million), the head of the company, Serhiy Koretskyi, announced while speaking at the Lviv Anti-Crisis Oil and Gas Conference, enkorr reports.

According to him, this is much more than the entire annual profit of the company in 2020 and 2021, when Ukrnafta earned UAH 4.3 billion ($159 million) and UAH 2.1 billion ($77 million), respectively.

Koretskyi added that Ukrnafta reported UAH 4.3 billion ($116 million) in net profit for the first quarter of 2023 and paid UAH 1.17 billion ($32 million) in income tax from it to the budget.

"This was the result of transparency and openness. The company no longer works in a narrow circle of related counterparties at unclear prices with deferred payment. We are open to cooperation with anyone," the company's chairman said.

Achieving a record financial result was also facilitated by a reduction in costs, an increase in daily oil production, and trading in petroleum products, Koretskyi said.

Ukrnafta plans to double oil production to 3 million tons per year by 2027 and considers it realistic to increase the level of commercial reserves to 40 million tons from the current 24 million tons.

Koretskyi cited statistics according to which Ukrnafta drilled 52 wells over the past 10 years, which is equal to the number in 2004 alone. According to the company's plans, it wants to drill 212 wells in the next five years.

"Ukrnafta specialists have selected 20 fields, for which we will soon officially announce the start of the selection procedure for external investors. In these fields, we have a total of reserves of 12 million tons of oil with condensate and 30 billion cubic meters of gas. The selection procedure will last three months, the contract is for the duration of the special permit — that is, for 10-15 years," Koretskyi said at the conference.

At the beginning of November 2022, the state took control of Ukrnafta. It was headed by Serhiy Koretskyi, who previously held the position of general director of the WOG gas station chain.

On May 8, Ukrnafta announced that they plan to double oil production and create a network of 1,200 gas stations.