MOSCOW, May 13 (RIA Novosti) - Bashneft, a Russian privately-owned oil company, said on Tuesday its net profit calculated to Russian Accounting Standards grew by 260% in January-April 2008, year-on-year, to 3.5 billion rubles ($150 million).

The company said in a report its sales in the period totaled 31.6 billion rubles ($1.5 billion) with gross profit at 15 billion rubles ($600 million), constituting growth of 170% and 180%, respectively.

Bashneft is the leading oil and gas producing company in the Republic of Bashkiria, southwest Urals, with annual production of around 12 million metric tons of oil. It was the 11th top oil producer in Russia in 2006.