MOSCOW, August 7 (RIA Novosti) - Russia's Transneft posted on Friday a 17.3% drop year-on-year in its net profit calculated to International Financial Reporting Standards to 19.2 billion rubles ($615.8 mln) in the first quarter of 2009.
The oil pipeline monopoly's IFRS sales amounted to 85.2 billion rubles ($2.7 billion) in the reporting period, up almost 34% against the first three months of 2008.
Transneft owns around 50,000 kilometers (31,000 miles) of trunk oil pipelines and transports 93% of all crude oil extracted in Russia. The Russian government has a 78% stake in the company.
Russia's state savings bank Sberbank issued Transneft an 11.9 billion-ruble ($382.6 million) loan on Monday to build the East Siberia - Pacific Ocean (ESPO) pipeline system to transport oil from Siberian deposits to the Asia Pacific Region.
Transneft also received 12.89 billion rubles ($416.3 million) from Sberbank in late March.
