MOSCOW, August 28 (RIA Novosti) - Russia's largest independent oil company LUKoil announced on Friday a 50% year-on-year drop in its U.S. GAAP net profit in the first half of 2009 to $3.362 billion.
Revenue fell 62.5% to $34.861 billion in the reporting period, while EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization) stood at $6.534 billion, down 40.8% against the first six months of 2008.
Last year, LUKoil's consolidated profit calculated to U.S. GAAP declined by 3.9% to $9.144 billion.
LUKoil, which accounts for around 1.3% of global oil reserves and some 2.3% of global oil output, earlier announced plans to boost output by 2.9% in 2009 to 98.2 million metric tons (1.97 million barrels a day).
LUKoil's majority shareholder with 63.3% of shares is Russia's ING Bank (Eurasia). U.S. oil major ConocoPhillips has a 20% stake, and LUKoil President Vagit Alekperov directly and indirectly controls about 20% of the company's stock.
