Transneft says may pay 75% of profit in dividends if tariff raised

MOSCOW, May 18 (PRIME) -- Russian oil pipeline monopoly Transneft may pay 50–75% of its net profit in dividends if the government raises the company’s oil pumping tariff to the market level, Transneft said in a presentation on Monday.

“Taking into account the structure of shareholders in the oil sector, it is reasonable not to reduce, but to raise Transneft tariffs to the market level to eliminate the artificial imbalance that emerged in the sector. Given the increase, Transneft could raise payments to the state and allocate 50–75% of the net profit on dividends,” the company said.

Reduction of tariffs will lead to losses of the state. Transneft pays 40–79 rubles of each 100 rubles of net profit to the government, while the oil companies pay only 14 rubles per 100 rubles of net profit to the state in dividends, while 42 rubles go to private shareholders.

“Transneft points out that 78.6% of its dividends are allocated to the state, while 15% of dividends go to the Russian Direct Investment Fund and foreign sovereign funds that are friendly to Russia, as well as to the pension fund of Gazprom and subsidiaries of Gazprombank,” the presentation read.

“Transneft tariff are too low and they are increased slower than inflation. Transneft provides services that are 2.5 times cheaper on average as compared with similar foreign companies,” while work of Russian oil companies is based on the open market principles that allow them to maintain high profits and make super profits under favorable circumstances, Transneft said.

(73.2056 rubles – U.S. $1)

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