Chelsea owner's oil firm in the red

BILLIONAIRE Roman Abramovich may be turning Chelsea Football Club into contenders for top honours but his oil company has suffered a surprise dip in form. Sibneft has fallen into the red despite bumper profits elsewhere in the oil industry.

For the first six months of the year - when crude prices soared to their highest for a decade - Sibneft reported a net loss of $20.56m (£12.9m) against a net profit of $33m a year ago. But Abramovich and other shareholders already promised an interim dividend of $1 billion can rest easy.

The shock downturn has been blamed on Russian accounting standards. Sibneft makes most of its money at oil trading firms located in Russian tax havens and these are not included in the unconsolidated accounts. Analysts think figures using US rules will put the group's retained earnings at $980m.

A company official added that the dividend, which has to be paid from profits under Russian standards, was not under threat. 'The company will simply return to profit by September when the dividend is due to be approved by a shareholders' meeting,' he said.

Abramovich and Sibneft's management own 92% of the company, with his stake thought to be about 50%. The owners agreed earlier this year to sell out to rival Yukos but this deal hss yet to be completed. Sibneft paid a dividend of $983m, in 2001 and $1.09bn last year.