Gazprom reports its consolidated interim condensed financial results under IFRS for the six months ended 30 June 2010

On 8 November 2010 OAO Gazprom issued its unaudited consolidated interim condensed financial information prepared in accordance with International Accounting Standard 34 “Interim Financial Reporting” (IAS 34) for the six months ended 30 June 2010.
Sales (net of excise tax, VAT and customs duties) increased by RR 250,758 million, or 17%, to RR 1,721,293 million in the six months ended 30 June 2010 compared to the six months ended 30 June 2009.
Net sales of gas increased by RR 63,875 million, or 6%, to RR 1,058,177 million in the six months ended 30 June 2010 compared to the six months ended 30 June 2009. This increase was primarily due to higher volumes of gas sold in all geographical segments, which was partly compensated by the decrease of average realized prices in RR terms (including excise tax and customs duties) for sales in Europe and other countries and FSU.
For the six months ended 30 June 2010 net sales of gas to Europe and other countries decreased by RR 58,365 million, or 10%, to RR 526,438 million compared to the six months ended 30 June 2009. This mainly results from the decrease of average realized prices in RR terms (including excise tax and customs duties) by 23% which was partly compensated by the increase of the volume of gas sold by 19%, or 12.5 bcm.
Net sales of gas to FSU countries increased by RR 26,868 million, or 17%, to RR 188,152 million in the six months ended 30 June 2010 compared to the six months ended 30 June 2009. The increase of sales in this segment is explained by the increase of volumes of gas sold by 50%, or 10.5 bcm, which was compensated by the decrease of the average realized prices in RR terms (including customs duties, net of VAT) by 15%.
Net sales of gas in the domestic market increased by RR 95,372 million, or 38%, to RR 343,587 million in the six months ended 30 June 2010 compared to the six months ended 30 June 2009. This is explained primarily by the increase in the average domestic price for gas set up by the Federal Tariffs Service, which was enhanced by the increase of the volume of gas sold by 6%, or 7.9 bcm.
Net sales of refined products increased by RR 96,494 million, or 43%, to RR 319,125 million in the six months ended 30 June 2010 compared to the six months ended 30 June 2009. The increase was due to the increase of volumes sold and increase of prices for refined products as well as by new acquisitions of Gazprom neft Group.
Net electric and heat energy sales increased by RR 48,844 million, or 49%, to RR 148,670 million in the six months ended 30 June 2010 compared to the six months ended 30 June 2009. The increase in electric and heat energy sales mainly resulted from consolidation of OAO TGC-1 starting from 31 December 2009 after control over that entity was obtained as well as from the increase in sales of electricity and heat volumes by other energy assets of the Group.
In the six months ended 30 June 2010 net sales of crude oil and gas condensate increased by RR 14,235 million, or 18%, to RR 93,520 million compared to the six months ended 30 June 2009. The increase of net sales of crude oil and gas condensate primarily resulted from the Gazprom Neft activities: net sales of crude oil increased by RR 8,340 million, or 12%, to RR 80,835 million in the six months ended 30 June 2010 compared to the six months ended 30 June 2009.
In the six months ended 30 June 2010 net gas transportation sales increased by RR 18,779 million, or 70%, to RR 45,576 million compared to the six months ended 30 June 2009. The increase of net gas transportation sales was primarily due to the increase of volumes of gas transported for independent gas suppliers.
Operating expenses increased by RR 110,385 million, or 11%, to RR 1,151,334 million in the six months ended 30 June 2010 compared to the six months ended 30 June 2009.
Major items whose growth resulted in the increase of the total amount of operating expenses are: exchange rate differences on operating items (change by RR 43,021 million), taxes other than on income (increase by RR 36,926 million), transit of gas, oil and refined products (increase by RR 34,051 million). With that, the cost of purchased oil and gas decreased by RR 79,996 million. The decrease in cost of purchased gas was mainly caused by the decrease in cost of Central Asian gas purchases.
Our net debt balance (defined as the sum of short-term borrowings, including current portion of long-term borrowings, short-term promissory notes payable, long-term borrowings, long-term promissory notes payable and restructured tax liabilities, net of cash and cash equivalents and balances of cash and cash equivalents restricted as to withdrawal under the terms of certain borrowings and other contractual obligations) decreased by RR 397,574 million, or 29%, from RR 1,372,307 million as of 31 December 2009 to RR 974,733 million as of 30 June 2010. This can be explained by the decrease of long-term and short-term borrowings which was primarily caused by the effect of deconsolidation of banking subsidiaries of the Group as of 30 June 2010 and the increase of cash and cash equivalents.