Market risks

The Company is implementing a number of measures that aim to mitigate the impact of such risks:

• long-term planning of commodity flows and the timely provisioning of the cumulative flow of oil and petroleum products as well as the necessary rolling stock;
• the optimal redistribution of commodity flows by transportation type;
• the use of alternative and internal sources of power generation;
• long-term contracting with fixed volumes and prices for the entire duration of the contracts;
• the use of transparent cost revision formulas as part of long-term service contracts that are strictly dependent on market fluctuations.

These measures make it possible to reduce risks associated with the use of services and the acquisition of goods from monopoly providers to an acceptable level and ensure the Company’s uninterrupted operations

The Company’s financial indicators are directly related to the price level of crude oil and petroleum products. The Group is unable to fully control the prices of its products, which depend on fluctuations related to the balance of supply and demand on the global and domestic markets for crude oil and petroleum products as well as the actions of the regulatory authorities

The Group has a business planning system which at its core has a scenario-based approach for determining the Company’s key performance indicators depending on oil prices on the global market. This approach makes it possible to cut costs, including by reducing them or carrying them over to future periods of investment programmes as well as other mechanisms.

These measures enable the Company to reduce risks to an acceptable level.

There is intense competition in the Russian oil and gas industry between the leading Russian oil and gas companies in the main areas of production and economic activities, including:

• the acquisition of licenses for the right to use subsoil resources to produce hydrocarbons at auctions organized by the government authorities;
• the acquisition of other companies that own licenses for the right to use subsoil resources to produce hydrocarbons or that own existing assets associated with production raw hydrocarbons;
• the hiring of leading independent service companies;
• the acquisition of high-tech equipment;
• the hiring of experienced and the most qualified specialists;
• access to critical transportation infrastructure;
• the acquisition of existing assets and the construction of new assets that increase the product sales volume to end users.

In addition, there is competition from the suppliers of alternative energy sources, including coal and nuclear energy as well as renewable energy sources

The Russian economy is sensitive to price fluctuations for crude oil, natural gas, and other raw commodities on the global market. Negative oil and petroleum product price dynamics on the global market and a slowdown in the world and Russian economy may have an adverse effect on the Company’s business, limiting revenue and the volume of product markets and increase the cost of financial and other resources

In order to mitigate the negative effect of this risk on its performance results, the Company works to ensure a balance between domestic sales and exports as well as oil production and refining and also maintains a focus on expanding the markets of premium sales channels and increasing product sales in foreign countries.

Gazprom Neft subsidiaries also provide support to the country’s economy as major taxpayers and take part in large-scale infrastructure and socially significant projects.

The Company is constantly improving production and working on enhancing performance efficiency, including by implementing investment projects as well as updating and modernizing fixed assets