Russian Oil and Gas Companies Get $9 Billion Aid

The biggest amount of money will go to state-owned Rosneft. The money will be used to refinance foreign debts. Gazprom was allocated $1 billion, TNK-BP can take $1.8 billion, and LUKOIL $2 billion. LUKOIL has the highest debt of the four companies ($4.2 billion at the end of June). All of those figures are subject to approval by the VEB supervisory board.

As Russian business paper Kommersant reports, analysts note that oil companies are not in the worst shape in the Russian economy. In spite of falling profits in the third quarter due to falling oil prices, the first half of the year was quite prosperous for them. In addition, changes in export duties saved them about $5.5 billion.

Author: Ksenia Kochneva