For the first time in 30 years: Lukoil has posted a loss
21 March 11:18
Lukoil, Russia’s largest private oil company, reported a net loss of 1.059 trillion rubles in 2025, according to its IFRS financial statements published on Friday.
This was reported by [Kommersant], citing Russian propaganda media.
Lukoil, owned by billionaire Vagit Alekperov, posted a loss for the year for the first time in three decades of its history. In the past, the company—which accounts for about 15% of the country’s total oil production—reported quarterly losses (45.9 billion rubles in January–March 2020, 65 billion rubles in September–December 2015), but always turned a profit by year-end.
Even in the late 1990s, when the price of Russian oil fell below $10 per barrel, Lukoil remained a reliable “cash cow”: in 1998, it posted $729 million in net profit, and in 1999—$1.062 billion (under US GAAP standards, which the company used at the time).
During the 2020 crisis, when the pandemic crashed the global oil market, Lukoil managed to earn 152 billion rubles. And in 2015, when Russia faced the first wave of sanctions over the annexation of Crimea, it reported 291.1 billion rubles in net profit.
Lukoil’s loss is due to the company writing off foreign assets worth 1.66 trillion rubles, according to PSB analysts. These include oil fields, refineries, and gas stations in 11 countries around the world—from Europe to Latin America—which, according to Alfa-Bank estimates, accounted for 15–17% of Lukoil’s production and a quarter of its total refining volume.
After the company fell under U.S. blocking sanctions, the operations of its foreign subsidiaries were paralyzed. And numerous attempts to sell the foreign network, with a book value of $22 billion, have so far failed to receive approval from the U.S. Treasury Department.
Lukoil’s revenue for last year fell by 15% to 3.77 trillion rubles; earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA) dropped by 36% to 892 billion rubles, and operating profit halved to 527 billion. This is the result of low ruble-denominated oil prices and refinery downtime “due to external factors,” according to PSB analysts.
“The decline in revenue is linked to low prices for Russian oil last year, the widening discount of Urals crude relative to benchmark foreign grades, sanctions against the tanker fleet, and sanctions against the corporation itself, which led to a reduction in its exports of crude oil and petroleum products,” notes a leading analyst at Globaldo. Lukoil’s results are “weak,” though “expected,” she emphasizes.
The key factor for Lukoil’s future remains the fate of its foreign assets—the sale price, the timeline for their disposal, and how Lukoil will receive and utilize the proceeds from the sale, write PSB analysts.
Initially, Lukoil planned to sell its foreign assets to Gunvor, a company founded by billionaire Gennady Timchenko, who is close to Putin. However, the deal fell through after the U.S. Treasury Department labeled Gunvor a Kremlin puppet.
