Russian gas giant Gazprom said on April 29 its net profit for 2008 rose 11 percent to 23.3 billion dollars (17.6 billion euros) from the previous year. The company's net gas sales surged by 45.2 percent to reach 104.7 billion dollars (80.3 billion euros) in 2008 compared to 2007, Gazprom said in a statement announcing its results.
"This increase was primarily due to the increase of the volume of gas sold to Europe and other countries and higher gas prices in all geographical segments," it said. The figures reflected a year in which energy prices reached record heights before plunging with the onset of the global financial crisis in the autumn.
Gazprom said the "influence of crisis effects on the financial markets and the ruble exchange rate" had led to a loss in the buy-back of a 20 percent stake in its oil unit Gazprom Neft from Italy's Eni and had also driven up financing costs.
The Russian state-run gas giant spent over four billion dollars to buy back the stake in Gazprom Neft. Ahead of the release of the earnings report, Moscow-based investment bank Renaissance Capital warned that "the headline figures could be seriously misleading" as they might not reflect the full impact of the economic crisis.