Rosneft Returns to Profit, Signaling 2020 Dividend Payments

  • Oil producer posts quarterly net income of 324 billion rubles
  • Vostok Oil deal with Trafigura boosts full-year results

A Rosneft oil storage tank at the RN-Tuapsinsky refinery in Tuapse, Russia.

Photographer: Andrey Rudakov/Bloomberg
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Russian oil giant Rosneft PJSC returned to profit in the fourth quarter of 2020 after signing a multibillion dollar deal to sell a share of its Vostok Oil mega-project in the Arctic to trader Trafigura Group.

The results signal that the producer will be able to pay a dividend for 2020 even after historic crude-price declines and production cuts. The company reported a record quarterly net income of 324 billion rubles ($4.36 billion) in the three months through December, above analyst estimates. That offset earlier losses, resulting in a full-year profit of 147 billion rubles.