Gazprom reports its consolidated interim condensed financial results under International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) for the nine months 2010

Sales (net of excise tax, VAT and customs duties) increased by RR 353,002 million, or 16%, to RR 2,507,744 million in the nine months ended 30 September 2010 compared to the nine months ended 30 September 2009.
Net sales of gas increased by RR 123,636 million, or 9%, to RR 1,500,360 million in the nine months ended 30 September 2010 compared to the nine months ended 30 September 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 nine months ended 30 September 2010 net sales of gas to Europe and other countries decreased by RR 52,122 million, or 6%, to RR 772,880 million compared to the nine months ended 30 September 2009. This mainly results from the decrease of average realized prices in RR terms (including excise tax and customs duties) by 11% which was partly compensated by the increase of the volume of gas sold by 4%, or 4.4 bcm.
Net sales of gas to FSU countries increased by RR 64,312 million, or 28%, to RR 290,070 million in the nine months ended 30 September 2010 compared to the nine months ended 30 September 2009. The increase of sales in this segment is explained by the increase of volumes of gas sold by 29%, or 10.6 bcm, which was compensated by the decrease of the average realized prices in RR terms (including customs duties, net of VAT) by 1%.
Net sales of gas in the domestic market increased by RR 111,446 million, or 34%, to RR 437,410 million in the nine months ended 30 September 2010 compared to the nine months ended 30 September 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 4%, or 7.7 bcm.
Net sales of refined products increased by RR 102,350 million, or 25%, to RR 504,711 million in the nine months ended 30 September 2010 compared to the nine months ended 30 September 2009. The increase was due to the increase of volumes sold and increase of prices for refined products of Gazprom neft Group as well as by new acquisitions of Gazprom neft Group during 2009.
Net electric and heat energy sales increased by RR 69,621 million, or 51%, to RR 206,610 million in the nine months ended 30 September 2010 compared to the nine months ended 30 September 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 nine months ended 30 September 2010 net sales of crude oil and gas condensate increased by RR 19,030 million, or 16%, to RR 141,366 million compared to the nine months ended 30 September 2009. The increase in net sales of crude oil primarily resulted from the Gazprom neft activities: net sales of crude oil increased by RR 8,169 million, or 7%, to RR 121,675 million in the nine months ended 30 September 2010 compared to the nine months ended 30 September 2009. The increase of gas condensate sales was primarily due to the increase in the average realized prices and volumes of gas condensate sold.
In the nine months ended 30 September 2010 net gas transportation sales increased by RR 25,632 million, or 62%, to RR 67,195 million compared to the nine months ended 30 September 2009. The increase in net gas transportation sales was primarily due to the increase of volumes of gas transported for independent gas suppliers.
Operating expenses increased by RR 174,537 million, or 11%, to RR 1,743,321 million in the nine months ended 30 September 2010 compared to the nine months ended 30 September 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 41,362 million), transit of gas, oil and refined products (increase by RR 40,891 million), taxes other than on income (increase by RR 36,675 million), staff costs (increase by RR 32,730 million). With that, the cost of purchased gas and oil decreased by RR 43,170 million. The decrease in cost of purchased gas was mainly caused by the decrease in cost of Central Asian gas purchases.
In the nine months ended 30 September 2010 our profit for the period attributable to owners of OAO Gazprom totaled RR 653,721 million which is RR 182,847 million, or 39%, higher compared to the nine months ended 30 September 2009.
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 400,527 million, or 29%, from RR 1,372,307 million as of 31 December 2009 to RR 971,780 million as of 30 September 2010. This can be explained by the decrease in long-term and short-term borrowings which was primarily caused by the effect of early redemption of long-term borrowings, deconsolidation of banking subsidiaries of the Group as of 30 September 2010 and the increase in cash and cash equivalents.