Tatneft reports improved financial results

Oil companies operating in Tatarstan, a republic within the Russian Federation, produced 28,672,500 tons of oil in 2002, which was 1.6 percent more than in 2001. In particular, 24.612m tons were produced by Tatneft, Yevgeny Tikhturov, head of the oil company's financial department, reported in an interview with RBC.

According to the official, the year 2002 was rather complicated for Tatneft in terms of finances. In addition to a significant reduction of expenses, the company managed to return its credits and debts. In particular, in 2002, Tatneft fully repaid its debt on eurobonds issued in 1997 for $300m. In addition, the company completed a large program of promissory notes, which was started in 2001 to reduce the company's budget deficit.

Tikhturov noted that despite these repayments, the financial stability of Tatneft had improved significantly in many respects compared to the previous year. For instance, the company's accounts payable were reduced by 2.3bn rubles (about $72m) and accounts receivable by 3.3bn rubles (about $104m) in 2002.

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