MOSCOW, May 15 (RIA Novosti) - Gazprom Neft said on Thursday its net profit calculated to Russian Accounting Standards increased 97% year-on-year to 22.6 billion rubles ($948 million) in January-March.
The oil producing arm of Russian energy giant Gazprom said its earnings in the first three months of the year were 132 billion rubles ($5.5 billion), a 54% rise on January-March 2007.
Gross profit stood at 36.5 billion rubles ($1.5 billion).
Earnings in 2007 stood at 439.4 billion rubles ($18.4 billion), 17% higher than the previous year. Net profit increased 26.5% last year to 79.5 billion rubles ($3.3 billion), while gross profit grew 25.8% to 134.4 billion rubles ($5.6 billion).
The rise in earnings in 2007 was largely due to a 29% hike in the net price of crude, including an 11% rise in the average price for Russia, a 10% increase for former Soviet republics, and a 39% rise for other countries.
Other factors were an 11% expansion of the company's sales of oil products in Russia, a 45% increase in other ex-Soviet republics, as well as a hike in the net sale price of oil products, with a 17% rise in the average price for Russia and 9% for exports.
The company also posted a 13% increase in US GAAP net profit year-on-year to $4.1 billion in 2007, with revenue climbing 5.6% to $21.1 billion last year against 2006.
Gazprom Neft, known as Sibneft before it was taken over by Gazprom in September 2005, stabilized crude output at 32.7 million metric tons (240 million barrels) in 2007 - the same production level as in 2006. The company plans to boost annual crude output to 90-100 million tons (660-730 million bbl) by 2020.
Gazprom owns a 75% stake in the company, another 20% belongs to a consortium of Italy's ENI and Enel.
