Russia’s state-owned gas giant Gazprom increased its first-quarter net profit by 44 per cent over the previous year as higher gas prices offset lower gas export volumes. The company on Thursday reported net profit attributable to its shareholders of Rbs535.9bn ($8.2bn) for the January-March period. Net sales to Europe and other countries increased 10 per cent on the previous year to Rbs837.4bn, it said, according to Financial Times.

“This is due to average price growth (including excise and export duty) in rouble terms, which was partly compensated by a decline in the volume of sold gas by 13 per cent, or 9.1bn cubic meters,” Gazprom said.

“At the same time, average prices rose 12 per cent in US dollar terms.” Gazprom, which has a monopoly on pipeline gas exports in Russia, supplied 49bn cubic meters of gas to Europe and Turkey in the first three months of the year, down nearly 10 per cent on the prior year due to warmer weather, high volumes in underground gas storage facilities and lower demand from Turkey.