Russia’s Gazprom expects record full-year net profit

MOSCOW (Reuters) – Russian state gas company Gazprom expects to post record net profit this year, with gas prices in its core European market forecast to keep rising through the fourth quarter, a company official said on a conference call on Monday.

Gazprom earlier reported record quarterly net profit of 581.8 billion roubles ($7.8 billion) for the third quarter, reflecting high natural gas prices, and said it expected even higher earnings in the last three months of the year.

(Reporting by Vladimir Soldatkin and Oksana Kobzeva; Writing by Katya Golubkova; Editing by David Goodman)