By Vladimir Soldatkin and Olesya Astakhova
MOSCOW, May 14 (Reuters) - Rosneft beatfirst-quarter net income forecasts as profit jumped seven-foldto 81 billion roubles ($1.3 billion) buoyed by higher prices,Russia's biggest oil producer said on Monday.
That topped the 76.8 billion roubles expected by analystspolled by Reuters.
Rosneft, headed by Igor Sechin, a long-standing ally ofRussian President Vladimir Putin, has been pursuing anaggressive acquisition policy, expanding its global reach, butalso amassing huge debt.
In the past year, together with partners, it bought Indianrefiner Essar Oil for $12.9 billion in Rosneft's first forayinto Asia's refining sector and the biggest foreign acquisitionever in India.
Rosneft, the world's largest publicly listed oil company byproduction, has also secured a deal to develop five fields inIraqi Kurdistan and agreed to help the region expand its oilpipeline infrastructure through which crude is exported viaTurkey to global markets.
The company did not disclose its net debt on Monday.
Last month it announced a set of measures to prop up itscapitalisation, such as a $2 billion share buyback to improvereturns, alongside plans to cut total debt and tradingliabilities by a minimum of 500 billion roubles.
"We believe that the conference call devoted to the results,during which the company might elaborate on the recentsupportive changes in the corporate governance, is likely toattract more interest from the investment community," VTBcapital analysts said in a note last week.
Sechin, commenting on the results, said the company "expectsfurther reduction in liabilities and improvement in shareholderreturns".
Oil major BP owns 19.75 percent in Rosneft. Qatar'ssovereign investment fund QIA holds almost 19 percent after adeal to sell its stake to China's CEFC collapsed.
Rosneft reported first-quarter sales up 22 percent year onyear to 1.72 trillion roubles, below the 1.76 trillion expectedby analysts.
January-March cash flow stood at $2.5 billion, the companysaid.
Earlier on Monday, Rosneft said its oil and gas condensateoutput in the first quarter was down 1.2 percent year on yearciting Russia's participation in a global pact to curb output.
($1 = 61.8350 roubles)(Reporting by Vladimir Soldatkin and Olesya Astakhova; editingby Andrey Ostroukh and Jason Neely)
BP (BP.)
