MOSCOW, April 30 (Reuters) - Rosneft, Russia's No.1 oil producer, said on Wednesday its first-quarter core profitmore than doubled, year-on-year, to 289 billion roubles, beatinganalyst forecasts.
Analysts, polled by Reuters, had expected January-Marchearnings before interest, taxation, depreciation andamortisation (EBITDA) of 280.7 billion roubles.
First-quarter net income of Rosneft, in which BP ownsa 19.75 percent stake, declined by 14 percent to 88 billionroubles on the back of an exchange rate loss as a result of aweakening rouble.
The company also said that free cash flow more than tripledto reach 121 billion roubles in January-March, while net debtdeclined by 11.5 percent to 1.59 trillion roubles. (Reporting by Vladimir Soldatkin, editing by Nigel Stephenson)