Russia's Rosneft Celebrates 2005 Profit

Russia's state-run oil firm Rosneft has announced another surge in profits for 2005 due to buying the key production assets of troubled rival Yukos.

Oil from the huge Yuganskneftegaz fields helped push Rosneft's net profit to $3.7bn for the first nine months of 2005, up from $620m in 2004.

Sales of oil and gas in the period rose from $1.9bn to $11.5bn.

Rosneft bought Yugansk in 2004 after its was seized from Yukos to settle an unpaid tax bill.

The deal more than doubled Rosneft's oil reserves and rocketed it from a small state-owned company into one of Russia's top three oil firms.