Gazprom third quarter net profits double to over $10B

MOSCOW (AFP) – The world’s largest gas company Gazprom said on Thursday it had doubled third quarter net profits to over 10 billion dollars due to higher sales even as its nine month profits fell.

File picture shows the logo of Russian energy company Gazprom in the forefront of the main office of the Russian Prime Minister in Moscow, Russia. The world’s largest gas company Gazprom said on Thursday it had doubled third quarter net profits to over 10 billion dollars due to higher sales even as its nine month profits fell

Net profits in the third quarter of 2012 were 305.05 billion rubles ($10.05 billion) compared with 151.98 billion rubles ($5.07 billion) in the same period the previous year, the Russian state-controlled giant said in a statement.

Sales in the third quarter amounted to 1.12 trillion rubles ($36.9 billion) which was up 18 per cent on the same period last year.

Over the first nine months however profits were 12 per cent lower than the same period last year at 813.7 billion rubles ($26.8 billion), it said. Yet total sales rose slightly by two per cent to 3.351 trillion rubles ($110.4 billion).

Net sales of gas fell eight per cent in the nine months, largely due to a fall of 16 per cent in sales to ex-Soviet states.

Sales of gas to Europe and other countries increased four percent in the nine months but this was due to an increase in prices and not volumes sold which  actually fell.