Lukoil booked an International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) net profit of 590.2 billion rubles ($6.5 billion) in the first half of 2024, up 4.6% year-on-year, thanks to higher sales volumes, Russia's second-largest oil producer said on Aug. 29.

Lukoil's net profit figure beat the average estimate of analysts polled by Russian news agency Interfax.

The oil giant also said its sales revenue jumped 20% to 4.333 trillion rubles ($47.4 billion) amid higher prices and increased sales. Operating profit and pretax profit at Lukoil also rose in the first half of the year.

Despite the profit, Lukoil has seen a pullback in both its upstream (including exploration and production activities) and downstream (including activities related to converting oil and gas into finished products) businesses this year. The company has had to cut some production due to the OPEC+ agreement, of which Russia is a member.

Lukoil has also had to carry out emergency repairs at refineries damaged by intense Ukrainian drone attacks on oil processing facilities and storage facilities deep inside Russian territory.

In January, Lukoil's NORSI refinery in Nizhny Novgorod was forced to temporarily shut down due to a technical problem. NORSI, which processes about 340,000 barrels of crude oil per day, is one of Russia's largest refineries.

In March, a similar Lukoil refinery in western Russia caught fire after Ukrainian drone attacks.

Since all major Russian refineries use more or less some Western technology, repairing equipment and units that are broken or damaged by such UAV attacks can be difficult.

The attacks knocked out about 14% of Russia's oil refining capacity in late March.

Then, in early June, a fire broke out at a Lukoil-operated oil refinery in the northern Komi Republic – a federal subject of Russia – killing two people.

"According to updated data, it has been established that a fire broke out during the performance of routine engineering work by a contractor," the Russian Emergencies Ministry said at the time.

Minh Duc (According to Oil Price, TASS)