The net profit of state-owned Uzbekneftegaz more than halved in 2023, investment company Kapital Depozit shared.
Last year, the company’s net profit dropped to 611.6 billion soums (about $49.6 million, according to the Central Bank of Uzbekistan rates dated December 31, 2023), marking a 53% decline from 2022. Over the past three to four years, Uzbekneftegaz has seen its profit decrease by five times, with figures of 1.3 trillion soums in 2022 (about $115.8 million as of December 31, 2022) and 3.3 trillion soums (about $304.5 million as of December 31, 2021) each in 2021 and 2020.
Assets of Uzbekneftegaz saw a 13.1% increase, reaching 89.1 trillion soums (about $7.2 billion as of December 31, 2023), while revenue rose to 14.7 trillion soums (about $1.2 billion), marking an 11.2% uptick. Shareholders' equity dropped by 2.9% to 48 trillion soums (about $3.9 billion), retained earnings fell by 8.4% to 5.7 trillion soums (about $462 million) and gross profit declined by 34.1% to 3.1 trillion soums (about $251 million).
Dividend payments for the year doubled to 2.5 trillion soums (about $202.6 million), while long-term bank loans saw a slight decrease from 18 to 17.6 trillion soums (from about $1.46 billion to about $1.42 billion). Conversely, short-term loans tripled from 746.8 billion to 2.2 trillion soums (from about $60.5 million to about $178.3 million).
Previously, Gazeta.uz noted the investments of Uzbekneftegaz, totaling hundreds of millions of the U.S. dollars, to boost gas production. Yet, gas production has kept declining yearly.
Furthermore, the company has transferred ownership of its gas stations (UNG Petro) and Chinaz petroleum refinery plant to Daniyar Kamilov’s Petroleum Technology Group.
