Rosneft profits up 21 percent

Russian oil major Rosneft on October 17 announced net profits, barring exceptional items, of 2.347 billion dollars (1.7 billion euros) for the first half of 2007, a 20.9 percent rise on the same period last year.
The country's biggest oil company said that including exceptionals, particularly proceeds from the dismembered Yukos oil group, profits rocketed 326.5 percent to just over 8.0 billion dollars.
Turnover during the first six months was 19.005 billion dollars, up 19.3 percent, the company said in a statement. Rosneft has been the main beneficiary of Yukos' destruction, winning billions of dollars' worth of Yukos assets at auction.