The world’s largest gas company, Russian Gazprom, announced on Thursday that its net profit in the third quarter of last year doubled due to higher revenues.
Net profit in the third quarter of 2012 amounted to 305.05 billion rubles (10.05 billion dollars), compared to 151.98 billion rubles (5.07 billion dollars) in the same period of the previous year, stated the Russian gas giant in a press release.
Revenues during the observed period amounted to 1,120 billion rubles (36.9 billion dollars) and increased by 18 percent compared to the same period in 2011.
In the first nine months of 2012, net profit was 12 percent lower than in the same period of the previous year, amounting to 813.7 billion rubles (26.8 billion dollars), Gazprom reported. However, total revenues slightly increased by two percent to 3,351 billion rubles (110.4 billion dollars).
Net gas sales decreased by eight percent in the nine-month period, primarily pressured by a 16 percent reduction in sales to countries in the former Soviet Union. Gas sales to Europe and other countries increased by four percent during the same period, thanks to rising prices, while the volume of sales actually decreased.
