The Russian oil firm RosneftMM>, which owns a portion of Nayara Energy, reported a record quarterly profit in April–June as its margins rose as a result of increased consumption of discounted Russian oil and fuel exports.
According to a late-night stock exchange filing on Friday, Nayara reported a net profit of around 35.64 billion rupees ($447.5 million) in the June quarter compared to a net loss of 1.39 billion rupees the previous year.
Each of the two companies that own 49.13% of Nayara is Rosneft and Kesani Enterprises Co Ltd, a partnership led by Trafigura Group and Russia’s UCP Investment Group.
The private refiner’s profit for the June quarter exceeded the 10.30 billion rupee profit for the entire fiscal year ending on March 31, 2022.
Indian refiners, which previously avoided purchasing Russian oil due to high freight costs, have started to do so since the end of February as a result of several western nations and businesses refusing to do business with Moscow due to its invasion of Ukraine.
Key Indian consumers of Russian oil now include Nayara and the private refiner Reliance Industries, both of which posted profits in the June quarter.
To help the government lessen the effects of inflation, state merchants supplied refined fuels at below-market prices in local markets during the months of April through June, which resulted in a net loss for them.
As part of the international response to Russia’s “special operation” in Ukraine, Rosneft was sanctioned, but Nayara, which runs the 400,000 barrels per day Vadinar refinery in Gujarat, was not.
Some senior management members have left the company since Western sanctions were imposed against Russia.
Krzysztof Zielicki, a representative of Rosneft, resigned from Nayara’s board on Friday, and Andrey Bogatenkov was named in his place.
Anup Vikal, the chief financial officer, has also quit, Nayara said on Wednesday.
It announced Jonathan Kollek’s resignation from the board last week and named Sachin Gupta to take his position. Kollek was a Kesani Enterprises nominee.
Gupta is the CEO of Trafigura India, and Bogatenkov is Rosneft’s Vice President for Commerce and Logistics.
To prevent issues brought on by western sanctions, some foreign banks and HDFC Bank have stopped providing trade credit for oil imports to Nayara. Likewise, some suppliers are asking for upfront payment.
Additionally, because of the sanctions against Moscow, CARE Ratings has put Nayara’s long-term ratings on “credit watch with negative implications.”
