Gazprom third quarter net profits double to over $ 10bn

MOSCOW: The world's largest gas company Gazprom said on Thursday it had doubled third quarter net profits to over 10 billion dollars due to higher sales even as its nine month profits fell.

Net profits in the third quarter of 2012 were 305.05 billion rubles ($10.05 billion) compared with 151.98 billion rubles ($5.07 billion) in the same period the previous year, the Russian state-controlled giant said in a statement.

Over the first nine months however profits were 12 percent lower than the same period last year, it said.