Gazprom reported net loss of 26.1 mln USD

Baku. 15 January. REPORT.AZ/ Gazprom JSC’s third-quarter loss was lower than expected as rising export sales and lower costs offset foreign-currency losses.

Report informs referring to Russian media world’s biggest natural gas producer reported a net loss of 2 billion rubles ($26.1 million), compared with a profit of 105.7 billion rubles a year earlier. That was better than the average estimate of a loss of 17.6 billion rubles from 10 analysts surveyed by Bloomberg News. Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization rose 3 percent year-on-year to 491 billion rubles, beating the estimate by 7 percent.

“Gazprom pleased the street with better than expected results,” said Maxim Moshkov, an energy analyst at UBS Group AG in Moscow, also highlighting a 10 percent cut in operational costs in rubles, “which saved the company’s bottom line.”

Russia’s falling currency supported Gazprom’s ruble-denominated revenue, helping to offset export prices that fell to near the lowest in a decade. Most of the company’s costs are in rubles while most of the profit is from abroad, with a majority of its gas-export contracts linked to oil. Brent slumped 35 percent last year.

Gazprom shares fell 0.7 percent to 129.98 rubles in Moscow at 1:05 p.m. after rising as much as 1.2 percent earlier.