The world's biggest gas firm Gazprom said today that its net profits for the first half of 2010 had risen by more than 66% to 508.2 billion rubles ($16.5 billion).
The profits underlined the earnings stability of the state-owned giant which has expanded hugely over the last years and is now eyeing supplying gas to further-flung markets such as China and Africa.
Total sales increased by 17%, to 1.7 trillion rubles ($55.3 billion), in the first half compared with the equivalent figure last year, it said in a statement.
Sales of gas increased by 6%, to a trillion rubles ($32.5 billion), owing to higher volumes of gas sold in all of Gazprom's areas of activity which compensated for price falls in Europe and the former Soviet Union.
Sales of gas to Europe and other countries decreased by 10% as prices fell but the volume of gas sold went up by 19%. But sales of gas to former Soviet states countries increased by 17% as the volume of gas sold increased 50%, offsetting a fall in prices of 15%, Gazprom said.
Operating expenses increased 11% in the period, due to higher charges from exchange rate fluctuations and tax and transit expenses, the company added.
Gazprom, founded in 1989, grew out of the USSR's Gas Industry Ministry and was part-privatised from 1993 in the much-criticised sale of state assets in post-Soviet Russia. The state has retained a controlling stake of just over 50%, according to the company's website.
The company has ramped up its ambitions in recent years and is expecting to sign a potentially huge deal to supply natural gas to China by the middle of next year.
