Serbian Oil Industry (NIS) achieved in the first half of this year net profit of 21.4billion, said on Wednesday, Deputy Director General of NIS Aleksej Urusov.
NIS made a profit primarily due to improved efficiency, reduced costs, increased oil and gas production and expanding range of products, and positive exchange rate differences amounted to 6.4 billion, said Urusov to represent business results NIS at the BSE.
The company recorded a profit before foreign exchange differences of about 15.1billion dinars, which is 144 percent more than in the first half of the 2010th year.
NIS in the first half of the year in the state budget for taxes and fiscal obligations paid 40 billion dinars, which is about a billion dollars over the same period last year, Urusov said, adding that the NIS from the start, invested 8.6 billion dinars, which is twice more than last year.
Modernization of refinery in Pancevo will be completed on time and the end of next year.
Urusov also said that the production of domestic oil and gas since the beginning of this year amounted to about 730,000 tons, which is about 30 percent more than the same period last year, the production volume was reduced by about 14 percent, while turnover products by about three percent lower than in the first half of last year.
Commenting on the price of fuel on NIS pumps Urusov said that the NIS oil prices are competitive and in line with prices in the region.
Fuel prices in Serbia are highly dependent on state-level abstraction or from excise duties and VAT, said Urusov, who could not specify whether it will be forth coming price cuts fuel on NIS pumps, because, as he said, will depend on the state – if state reduce the amount of excise tax for petroleum products.