RUSSIA'S largest independent gas producer has reported a more than six-fold increase in net income on the back of stronger natural gas prices and cost controls. Novatek's consolidated financial report for 2021 showed net income attributable' to shareholders soaring to almost 433 billion rubles (US$5.6 billion) last year, against 68 billion in 2020. Gross revenues rose by 62% to top 1.1 trillion rubles, while operating expenses grew at 59% to 875 billion rubles. The company more than halved its debt to 67 billion rubles despite heavy investments in the Arctic LNG 2 project on the Gydan Peninsula in the Yamal-Nenets region. With the first train of Arctic LNG 2 set to come online in 2023, Novatek reported that it has already spudded enough development wells in the Salmanovskoye gas field to underpin the delivery of enough gas to cover the train's full capacity of 6.6 million tonnes per annum of LNG. The construction of a concrete gravity-based structure for the first train of Arctic LNG 2 was completed at a specialist yard near the Barents Sea port of Murmansk, and installation of the topside modules of the LNG train is progressing.
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