Russia’s Gazprom swings to profit in Q3

Russian energy giant Gazprom posted a net profit of 102 billion roubles ($1.7 billion) in the third quarter of 2016 as it benefited from a stronger rouble.

Moscow-based Gazprom logged a loss of 2 billion roubles in the same quarter a year ago after a foreign-exchange loss.

The company said its third-quarter sales were down to 1.26 trillion roubles from 1.29 trillion in the same period in 2015 as its gas sales to Europe dropped to 570 billion roubles.

In the nine-month period that ended September 30, 2016 net sales of gas to Europe and other countries rose 8 percent to 1.55 trillion roubles.

This was mainly driven by “the increase in volumes of gas sold by 28 %, or 35.6 bcm, which was partially compensated by the decrease in average Russian Ruble prices,” Gazprom said.

Gazprom is Europe’s largest supplier of natural gas and generates more than a half of its revenue from selling gas to Europe.

LNG World News Staff