MarketScreener was able to access the complete financial accounts of the major company headed by Igor Sechin, who has been one of Vladimir Putin's most loyal supporters for decades.

In FY 2024, Rosneft, the Russian Federation's largest taxpayer, was still producing 3.7 million barrels of oil per day, as well as 1.4 million barrels of gas equivalent.

This ranks it third in the world amongst hydrocarbon producers, behind the Saudi and Iranian national companies. This ranking is also confirmed by the size of its proven reserves, which hover around 40 billion barrels.

Despite sanctions that, in theory, deprive Rosneft of the most sophisticated drilling equipment, the cost of extracting a barrel was $2.9 in 2024, equivalent to that of Saudi Aramco and ten times lower than that observed in North American basins.

In 2024, net income available to shareholders, which was identical to free cash flow, reached approximately $12bn. Dividend payments also increased by a third compared to the previous year, no doubt to help finance the war effort.

Although this profit is lower than in 2023—approximately US$16bn—it is still exactly the same as that achieved in 2021, i.e., before the invasion of Ukraine. In rubles, it has even increased significantly.

This shows the relative ineffectiveness of Western sanctions. As things stand, Moscow's tax levies and interest rates, which now exceed 20% in Russia, seem to have caused Rosneft more problems than the retaliatory measures imposed by the United States and the European Union.

Details on the destination of production are no longer available. All we know is that in 2024, half of the crude oil refined by Rosneft was sold abroad. In 2021, the group sold three-quarters of its oil production for export outside the CIS states—presumably to India and China in the first instance.

On the Moscow stock exchange, Rosneft remains valued at around $57bn, slightly less than 5x its free cash flow in 2024. It is noteworthy that this valuation multiple is one notch higher than that of Brazil's Petrobras, whose proven reserves are three to four times smaller than those of Rosneft.

On this subject, refer to Petrobras-stratospheric-dividend-yield-reflects-investors-extreme-mistrust-of-the-company, published last week in this column.