Rosneft Profits Fall

State oil company Rosneft said Monday that profits decreased 9 percent year on year in 2001, although it posted a 6.1 percent increase in revenues. The company reaped profits of 28.19 billion rubles ($926 million) on revenues of 93.02 billion rubles ($3.05 billion) in 2001, according to Russian accounting standards. Rosneft spokesperson Alexander Stepanenko attributed the profit decrease to the fall in oil prices. "We extracted more oil, but we were only able to sell it at a lesser price," Stepanenko said. "Our increased transportation costs ate into our margin." In 2001, Rosneft pumped 14.94 million tons of crude oil and associated gas, a 11.7 percent increase over 2000, the St. Petersburg Times reported.