Last checked at 
(Adds detail, quote, share price)
* Q1 net profit down 14 pct y/y due to exchange rate
* Free cash flow more than tripled to 121 bln rbls
* Rosneft says Arctic development plan on track
By Vladimir Soldatkin
MOSCOW, April 30 (Reuters) - Rosneft, Russia's No.1 oil company, said on Wednesday its first-quarter core profitmore than doubled, year-on-year, to 289 billion roubles ($8billion), beating analyst forecasts, on the back of risingsales.
Analysts, polled by Reuters, had expected January-Marchearnings before interest, taxation, depreciation andamortisation (EBITDA) of 280.7 billion roubles.
The company became the world's largest listed oil producerlast year, when it bought the Anglo-Russian TNK-BP oil firm for$55 billion in what some observers see as Russian PresidentVladimir Putin's strategy of pursuing state capitalism.
After the deal, BP ended up with a 19.75 percentstake in the Kremlin energy champion. Rosneft, headed by IgorSechin, a long-standing ally of Putin, borrowed more than $30billion from banks to finance the TNK-BP purchase.
The company said on Wednesday its free cash flow more thantripled to reach 121 billion roubles in January-March, while netdebt declined by 11.5 percent to 1.59 trillion roubles.
Rosneft's first-quarter net income declined by 14 percent to88 billion roubles due to the impact of a weakening rouble,which it put at 84 billion roubles.
The Russian currency is down some 10 percent against thedollar so far this year.
SANCTIONS
Banking sources said on Tuesday that U.S. sanctions imposedon Sechin earlier this week over the Ukraine crisis arethreatening Rosneft's plans to raise around $4 billion of oilprepayment loans.
Markets have largely brushed off the sanctions.
Rosneft's share prices reversed losses after the companypublished its results and were up 0.1 percent in late trade, inline with the broader market.
Putin said on Tuesday that Moscow saw no need forcounter-sanctions against the West but that it could review itscontracts with international majors if sanctions continued.Rosneft has deals with Exxon Mobil, Eni andStatoil to tap offshore Arctic resources.
Rosneft aims to drill a first exploratory well in the ArcticKara Sea, which it plans to develop with Exxon, in August.
"Preparation for drilling the first well in the Kara Sea isunquestionably one of our key projects. Monetisation of Russia'senormous resource potential in the offshore Arctic is the keypriority for the company," Sechin said in a statement.
($1 = 35.6277 Russian Roubles) (Reporting by Vladimir Soldatkin, editing by Nigel Stephenson)
