Naftna Industrija Srbije AD (NIIS), the Serbian oil and gas company controlled by Russia’s OAO Gazprom Neft (GAZP), will use last year’s profits to cover accumulated losses.

NIS’s net income almost tripled to 40.6 billion dinars ($442.05 million) in 2011 on expanded output and a stable dinar exchange rate that helped keep costs in check, the company said in an e-mail today.

“All the losses have been covered and there’s nothing else remaining from the past times,” board member Slobodan Milosavljevic said.

The Novi Sad-based refiner promised shareholders to pay at least 15 percent of net as a dividend from next year as part of a long-term dividend strategy, it said in the statement after a shareholders meeting.

The company’s shares closed at 601 dinars on the Belgrade Stock Exchange, 0.17 percent up on the previous trading session.

To contact the reporters on this story: Gordana Filipovic in Belgrade at gfilipovic@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: James M. Gomez at jagomez@bloomberg.net