MOSCOW, May 16 (RIA Novosti) - Gazprom (RTS: GAZP) said Tuesday its earnings had risen 95% year-on-year in the first three months of 2006 to 465.39 billion rubles (about $17.2 billion).
The world's third largest company in terms of market capitalization (about $300 billion), said its 2005 earnings totaled 1,231 billion rubles (about $43 billion). Gas sales yielded 968.58 billion rubles (about $33.8 billion) in 2005 and 395.8 billion rubles (about $14.6 billion) in January-March 2006.
Natural gas accounted for 78.67% of Gazprom's earnings in 2005 and 85.05% in the first three months of 2006, the company said in a statement.
"Natural gas sales grew 37% in 2005 on 2004 largely due to increased revenues from the sale of gas in the CIS and Baltic states and higher prices for gas sold outside Russia," the statement said.
Gazprom's 1Q net profit grew by an annualized 140% mainly because gas sales rose more than 50% in January-March 2006 year-on-year, the statement said.
