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MOSCOW, Nov 11 (Reuters) - Russia's largest oil producerRosneft said on Friday its third-quarter net profithad fallen by 77 percent, year-on-year, to 26 billion roubles($400.7 million) due to weaker oil prices.
That was worst than expected. Analysts, polled by Reuters,had forecast net income to come in at 45 billion roubles.
"In Q3 2016 the environment on the commodity marketsremained difficult. Additional pressure on the company'sprofitability was from (a) considerable negative export duty lageffect," Igor Sechin, Rosneft's chief executive, said in astatement.
Rosneft has been looking for ways to increase its globalexposure and become a leading international oil major.
It said it had generated a positive free cash flow of $4.1billion in January-September, pointing out that other majors hadexperienced a negative cash flow over the same period.
Rosneft bought a controlling stake in mid-sized oil firmBashneft for 323 billion roubles last month, and hasset its sights on acquiring a 19.5 percent state stake initself.
Analysts say they want Rosneft to disclose its forecast foroil production and capex, as well as details on Bashneft and itsown share buyback, during a conference call due later on Friday.
Kremlin-controlled Rosneft's shares rose by 0.3 percent atthe opening of the trading session, underperforming a 0.4percent rise in the broader Moscow stock market.
The company said sales had declined by 4 percent to 1.22trillion roubles compared to the same period a year earlier,while earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation andamortization, a gauge of operating profit known as EBITDA, hadincreased by 20 percent to 292 billion roubles.
Free cash flow was $1.3 billion, unchanged from the previousthree months.
Net debt rose by 11.5 percent to $26.1 billion from theprevious quarter.
($1 = 64.8893 roubles) (Reporting by Vladimir Soldatkin; Editing by Andrew Osborn)
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