Russia's Lukoil announced a drop in profits in 2013

The company's net profit in 2013 dropped by 29% to $7.83 billion

Lukoil's poor 2013 results sum the Russian major’s dilemma: as a privately held company it lacks ready access to the Russia’s new fields, but its riskier overseas expansion is proving disappointing. On 19 February, Lukoil announced its net profit in 2013 dropped by 29% to $7.83 billion, as it had to write off the value of investments at some major projects it once touted as the source of the company’s future earnings growth. The impairments had a $2.1bn impact on net profits, Lukoil said, though some analysts noted that even without write-offs the company’s bottom line would have been $10.28bn, down on the previous year and worse than a Reuters consensus forecast of $10.36bn. Better news cam