RusEnergy

23 January 2007 - Upstream onLine - Russian oil company Tatneft expects its revenues under Russian accounting standards to increase by 2% year-on-year in 2006 to 173 billion roubles ($6.52 billion), the company said today. Tatneft said its pre-tax profit was likely to stay flat in 2006 at 50 billion roubles ($1.89 billion). The company did not give the forecast for its net profit, which amounted to 36.5 billion roubles ($1.38 billion) in 2005. It did not say why its sales and pre-tax profits would stay largely flat in 2006, despite much higher global oil prices and bigger profits across the Russian industry. Tatneft, which produces mostly high-sulphur crude in Russia's Volga region of Tatarstan, said its oil output increased by 0.2% to 25.4 million tonnes last year.