First-quarter net profit of Russia’s largest oil producer Rosneft ROSN.MM rose by 45.5% from the previous three months to 323 billion roubles ($4 billion) on the back of rising output, the company said on Wednesday, exceeding expectations.

It also said its core profit (EBITDA) increased in January-March to 672 billion roubles, up 25.1% from the previous three months, while revenue edged down 1.1% to 1.823 trillion roubles.

Analysts, polled by the Interfax news agency, had expected Rosneft’s first-quarter net income at 236 billion roubles, EBITDA of 567 billion roubles and revenue of 1.797 trillion roubles.

The company also said that its oil and gas production in the first quarter increased by 0.8% from October – December to over 4 million barrels per day.

Rosneft’s profit was boosted by rising oil sales to India and to other destinations away from Europe.

Sakhalin-1 oil project in Russia’s Pacific also contributed to Rosneft’s production after it had bounced back to its plateau level of about 200,000 barrels per day (bpd) from zero.

Rosneft said on Wednesday that Sakhalin-1 production jumped by 1.8 times quarter on quarter.
Source: Reuters (Reporting by Reuters; editing by David Evans)