MOSCOW (May 31): First-quarter (1Q) net profit of Russia's largest oil producer Rosneft rose by 45.5% from the previous three months to 323 billion roubles (US$4 billion or RM18.5 billion) on the back of rising output, the company said on Wednesday (May 31), exceeding expectations.

Rosneft, headed by Igor Sechin, a long-standing ally of President Vladimir Putin, has shown resilience in the face of Western sanctions by redirecting its oil flows from Europe to Asia amid a wider political fallout.

The company's shares rose in morning trade by about 1.4%, outperforming Moscow's stock market.

Sechin said the company's operations would be further impacted by Russia's decision to reduce its oil output by 500,000 barrels per day, or about 5%, in order to bolster global oil markets.

"While the cut did not have much influence on the 1Q 2023 results, it will have a strong impact on the results of the following quarter," he said in a statement.

Rosneft also said its core profit (Ebitda) increased in January-March to 672 billion roubles (RM38.42 billion), 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 1Q net income at 236 billion roubles, Ebitda of 567 billion roubles and revenue of 1.797 trillion roubles.

The company said that its oil and gas production in 1Q increased by 0.8% from October-December to more than four million barrels per day.

Rosneft's profit was boosted by rising oil sales to India and other destinations outside Europe.

The Sakhalin-1 oil project in Russia's Pacific also contributed to Rosneft's production after it 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. Production on the Pacific island had plummeted after ExxonMobil withdrew from Russia and the project last year.

"I should note that the downtime following the exit of the former project operator, American company ExxonMobil, had a negative impact on the technical conditions of field development," Sechin said.