Petroleum Industry of Serbia (NIS) CEO Kirill Kravchenko expressed expectation on Monday that NIS would make a bigger profit this year than last year's RSD 16.5 billion.

At the presentation of the 2010 Report on the sustainable development of NIS, Kravchenko said that following the modernization of the Pancevo refinery, a new investment phase worth several hundred million euros would commence at the facility.

He stressed NIS was the first company in Serbia to publish a sustainable development report in line with the highest standards and quality of corporate reporting, set by the Global Reporting Initiative-GRI-G3 and AccontAbility (AA1000 APS 2008).

The report shows the balance between NIS's financial, production, social and environmental activities, explained the CEO, adding the company would continue to develop its social responsibility and increase its openness to society.

Kravchenko listed a series of improvements in the company's production and financial results for 2010 compared to the previous year, pointing out last year's RSD 16.5 billion profit quintupled the 2009 results, and NIS invested around RSD 17 billion last year.

At the same time, the company paid RSD 83.8 billion into the Serbian budget last year. This is 13 percent of the budget revenue and makes NIS one of the biggest budget contributors.

The volume of oil and gas production surpassed 2009 by 33 percent, while processing was up nine percent.

NIS invested RSD 81.2 million last year in employee education, RSD 300 million in socially responsible projects and RSD 1.6 billion in environmental protection, Kravchenko noted, adding that the company's sustainable development goal was to bring its current C+ rating up to an A in the next two to three years.