“Lukoil”, the largest private oil company in Russia, recorded a net loss of 1.059 trillion rubles in 2025, according to IFRS-based financial statements published on Friday.
This is the first time in its three-decade history that the company owned by billionaire Vagit Alekperov has ended the year in the red. In the past, the company, which accounts for about 15% of all oil production in the country, had recorded quarterly losses (45.9 billion rubles in January-March 2020, 65 billion rubles in September-December 2015), but always ended the year with a profit.
Even in the late 1990s, when the price of Russian oil fell below $10 per barrel, “Lukoil” remained a reliable “cash machine”: in 1998, it recorded a net profit of $729 million, and in 1999 – $1.062 billion (according to US GAAP standards, which the company used at the time).
In the 2020 crisis, when the pandemic hit the global oil market, “Lukoil” was able to earn 15.2 billion rubles. And in 2015, when Russia faced the first wave of sanctions over the annexation of Crimea, it recorded a net profit of 291.1 billion rubles.
The loss of “Lukoil” is due to the fact that the company wrote off foreign assets worth 1.66 trillion rubles, analysts at PSB note. These are oil fields, refineries, and gas stations in 11 countries around the world – from Europe to Latin America – which, according to Alfa-Bank estimates, provided “Lukoil” with 15-17% of its production and a quarter of its total oil processing volume.
After the company was subjected to blocking sanctions by the US, the operations of its foreign subsidiaries were paralyzed. And numerous attempts to sell the foreign network at a book value of $22 billion have not yet received approval from the US Treasury.
“Lukoil’s” revenue for the past year decreased by 15%, to 3.77 trillion rubles; profit before tax, interest, and depreciation (EBITDA) – by 36%, to 892 billion rubles, and operating profit – by half, to 527 billion. This is the result of low ruble oil prices and refinery downtime “due to external factors”, analysts at PSB write.
