"Rosneft Reported A Fourfold Profit Crash
- 1.04.2026, 18:16
The Russian oil industry has found itself in the epicenter of a "perfect storm".
"Rosneft, Russia's largest oil producer, which accounts for every second barrel extracted from the subsoil, has seen its net profit fall almost fourfold by the end of 2025, reports The Moscow Times.
According to IFRS reports, the company earned 293 billion Russian rubles last year compared to 1.084 trillion a year earlier. In the fourth quarter, Rosneft's profits collapsed 10-fold to 16 billion rubles versus 158 billion rubles in September-December 2024. At the same time, the decline in profits is accelerating: in the first quarter it was 170 billion rubles, in the second - 74 billion, in the third - 32 billion.
Rosneft's results are "weak," wrote analysts at Alfa Bank. At year-end, the company's revenue fell by 19% (to 8.236 trillion rubles), EBITDA - by 28% (to 2.173 trillion rubles), and free cash flow - that is, the difference between inflows to accounts and outflows - by half, to 700 billion rubles.
"In 2025, the Russian oil industry found itself in the epicenter of a 'perfect storm,'" complained Rosneft head Igor Sechin, commenting on the results. Falling oil prices, widening discounts, and production curbs under the OPEC+ agreement led to a decline in Rosneft's revenue, while the Central Bank's high key rate and higher taxes hit profits, Sechin explained.
"Additional pressure came from blocking US sanctions against Rosneft, as well as the strengthening of the ruble on the back of cheaper oil," said Natalia Milchakova, lead analyst at Freedom Finance Global. At the end of the year, after the tightening of sanctions, the price of a barrel of Urals fell to $40 and below, and about half of the fields in Russia became unprofitable.
In response, oil companies were forced to reduce production, and at the end of the year its volume fell to the minimum for 16 years - 512 million tons. Rosneft's production, according to reports, fell by 2% to 181.1 million tons.
The oil industry's problems are linked to sanctions, Sechin complained in a release: blacklists are being added to shadow fleet vessels, mass refusals to insure transportation of Russian oil are being recorded, and freight rates have jumped 10 times or more. Now the freight of a tanker for delivery to India costs $20 per barrel of oil on board, while until 2022, when exporting to Europe, it was only $2 per barrel, the head of Rosneft cites figures.
From the middle of 2025, Rosneft stopped disclosing data on cash flows in its reports. These are figures that reflect inflows to the company's accounts (operating cash flow), outflows from accounts for investments and financial expenses, as well as changes in cash reserves on accounts ("cash and cash equivalents").
Nevertheless, the statements show that in the second half of the year, Rosneft's accounts were replenished by 500 billion rubles, which "provided the company with liquidity," draws the attention of Alfa Bank. Rosneft recorded the inflow to its accounts shortly after it classified the detailed data.