Russia’s largest independent natural gas producer and LNG operator, Novatek said on Wednesday its 2017 net profit declined by 39.3 percent, affected by a stake sale in its Yamal LNG project the year before.
Novatek reported a net profit of 156.4 billion roubles ($2.76 billion) as compared to 257.8 billion roubles in 2016.
The result was affected by the 1.1 billion euros ($1.35 billion) sale of a 9.9 percent equity stake in Yamal LNG to the Silk Road Fund of China and by the foreign exchange differences, Novatek said in its report.
Excluding these, Novatek’s last-year profit would have risen by almost 17 percent to 156.2 billion roubles, it said.