Rosneft, Russia's leading oil firm, said on Dce. 1 its third quarter net profit jumped 80% from a year earlier to $3.5 billion.
In the January to September period, the company reported record net income of $10.3 billion, up 139%.
Rosneft put the gain down to increased crude output, acquisitions, better cost controls as well as high oil and gas prices.
In 2007, Rosneft bought almost all the assets of bankrupt oil firm Yukos at state auctions, making the government-owned company Russia's top oil producer.
"We significantly reduced net debt and continued efforts to optimize our debt portfolio," Rosneft president Sergei Bogdanchikov said. "All of these measures together with continued cost reductions and prioritization of investments, position the company well for what is now a more challenging operating environment of substantially lower prices."
Copyright Agence France-Presse, 2008
