OREANDA-NEWS. The Gazprom Neft Board of Directors has reviewed the company’s strategic priorities for 2016, as well as progress in implementing company strategy to 2025.

The company’s development strategy to 2025 supplements strategy to 2020, defining tactics for achieving previously determined objectives in key business sectors — hydrocarbon production, refining and the sale of oil products — in view of changing conditions within the sector and the global economy.

Gazprom Neft plans to maintain production after 2020 at 100 million tonnes of oil equivalent (mtoe) per year, as well as maintaining reserve levels, currently expected to last for approximately 20 years. Refining volumes in Russia are expected to remain stable, at around 40 million tonnes of oil per year. The company’s priorities in the refining sector are to retain market leadership in operational efficiency and to continue the modernisation of its refining assets. Following the thoroughgoing modernisation of refining capacity the company’s facilities throughout Russia will match international standards in terms of technology and equipment. Gazprom Neft’s core objective in retailing oil products is to sell 100 percent of refinery products through its own sales channels in order to maximise coverage throughout the entire value chain.

Gazprom Neft continued working towards previously set strategic goals throughout 2015, with results for the first nine months of 2015 showing production volumes up by more than 22 percent year on year, to 58.76 mtoe. The successful implementation and dissemination of new technologies upstream allowed 22 million tonnes of reserves to be brought into production in 2015.

This year has also seen the first winter sea shipments of oil from the Novoportovskoye field, as well as installation completed for the Vorota Arktiki (the Arctic Gate) crude-loading terminal, allowing the year-round shipment of Novy Port oil. Geological prospecting at the Messoyakhskoye field is now fully complete, and infrastructure construction and production drilling ongoing. The company also continued to consolidate its position on the Russian Arctic Shelf, with the millionth tonne of oil produced at the Prirazlomnoye field in November 2015.

The company is continuing the implementation of a major modernisation programme throughout its refining facilities. The first phase of this — directed at improving the quality of oil products, and transferring to the 100-percent production of fuels of the highest environmental standard (Euro-5) — having now been completed, with the company moving onto proactive implementation of the second phase, directed at further improving refining depth and increasing yield of light oil products.

Current global macroeconomic conditions notwithstanding, Gazprom Neft’s strategic focus remains unchanged. The company’s priorities in 2016 will remain the development of hard-to-recover and unconventional reserves, the continuation of geological prospecting operations consistent with licence conditions, finalising projects close to completion (i.e., bringing the Novoportovskoye and Mossoyakhskoye fields into production), and completing the second phase of modernising the company’s refining facilities.

The Board of Directors also reviewed information pertaining to the strategic development of its Serbian part-owned subsidiary NIS (Naftna Industrije Srbije) to 2025.

NIS is today one of the most significant vertically integrated companies in south—east Europe. Gazprom Neft has a 56.15-percent holding in NIS and the Republic of Serbia 29.87, with the remaining 13.98 percent held by minority shareholders. The company’s key activities include exploration, production and refining of oil and gas, the sale of oil products, and the implementation of other energy projects. Since 2012, NIS has been actively expanding its operations in the fields of power generation, wind power generation and geothermal energy.

Implementation of the company’s medium-term strategy through 2009–2014 has seen an increase in production volumes and reserves, as well as an increase in refining volumes and higher sales of oil products. NIS has seen a considerable improvement in its financial performance since Gazprom Neft’s addition to the Serbian company’s shareholders, with EBITDA showing a five-fold increase from $156 million in 2009 to $717 million in 2014, and the debt-to-EBITDA ratio decreasing more than three-fold over the same period. The company’s tax contributions to the Republic of Serbia have increased from seven percent of the national budget in 2009 to 15 percent in 2014.

The company’s strategy to 2025 has been developed in conjunction with that of Gazprom Neft, and highlights key priorities for its strategic development in the long term. NIS’ strategy is focused on increasing shareholder value and increasing its market-leading position within the Balkans.

NIS’ strategic objectives in hydrocarbon production are to optimise profitability and reserve growth throughout the company’s existing assets, as well as continuing its development in the Balkans throughout neighbouring geological basins. Strategy in refining is centred around implementing the second phase of modernising the company’s refinery in Pan?evo (Serbia), directed at increasing refining depth and improving the plant’s operational efficiency. The company also aims to sell 90–93 percent of its oil products through premium channels by 2025, as well as consolidating its market-leading position in both premium and mass-market channels (the Gazprom and NIS Petrol filling station networks).

The company’s core objective in the energy sector, set out in its development strategy to 2025, is focused on the effective monetisation of gas production, through the construction of power stations and production of CNG.