OREANDA-NEWS. On 12 December the General Director of Tatneft Mr. Nayl Maganov in the presence of the Ambassador of the Russian Federation to the United Kingdom Mr. Alexander Yakovenko and the CEO of London Stock Exchange plc Mr. Nikhil Rathi opened the market for trading at the London Stock Exchange and held a meeting with international investors.

These events were associated with the 20th anniversary of the Company obtaining listing on the London Stock Exchange. In December 1996 Tatneft became one of the first Russian companies placing its securities in international financial markets and opened access of international investors to its shares via the depositary receipts.

The market opening ceremony was attended by the senior management of The Bank of New York Mellon (the Company’s ADR program depositary bank), PwC (the auditor), Cleary Gottlieb (the Company’s legal counsel in relation to the offering of its securities in the international financial markets), independent Directors and top managers of the Company and those who participated in the organization of placement of Tatneft securities in London.

In his speech at the ceremony Nayl Maganov emphasized the critical role that the 1996 listing had for attracting investments required for the development of Tatneft. The General Director of the Company stated that despite current strengthening of the Russian securities market, the development of its trading and settlement infrastructure, the London Stock Exchange keeps its role as the platform through which the widest range of investors has access to the Company’s securities, whilst the interest in Tatneft shares remains at a high level.

On the same day Tatneft held its Investor Day meeting in London where the features of the Company’s development and growth, expected operational results for 2016, the plans for 2017, the Group Strategy 2025, the IFRS results for the third quarter of 2016 and the capital structure were presented to international institutional investors and stock market analysts.

The core pillars of strategic development of the Company are human capital, technological leadership and effective utilization of the Company’s resources and assets. This year has been successful for Tatneft in all areas of its operations: crude oil production growth by the end of the year is expected to reach +5.3% (28.7 million tonnes); the delayed coker was launched at the TANECO complex, eliminating fuel oil production and increasing the refining conversion rate to over 99%; the market capitalization by the beginning of December has exceeded 33%.

Based on the approved Strategy 2025, the Company is planning to achieve the level of crude oil production of over 29 million tonnes next year. This projection is subject to change in light of the decisions aimed at stabilization of the oil markets; at the same time the Company expects to reach its planned financial goals.

At the TANECO complex the launch of diesel and kerosene hydrotreating untits will allow to increase the production of diesel and jet fuels. The production of own automobile gasoline will commence with the launch of naphtha hydrotreating unit, catalytic reformer and isomerization.

At the same time the implementation of initiatives aimed at the evaluation of opportunities for effective production of reserves with their 100 percent replacement, the expansion and development of the TANECO complex, the improvements and optimization of operations in all business units and others, will continue.