By Anthony O. Goriainoff

Gazprom PJSC said Monday that it swung to a pretax profit for the first half of 2021 as sales rose, and that net gas sales increased by 60% mainly due to an increase in sales to Europe and other countries.

The Russian energy company said that its pretax profit was 1.241 trillion rubles ($16.88 billion) compared with a loss of RUB16.81 billion for the first half of 2020.

Net profit was RUB968.5 billion compared with RUB23.92 billion in the year-prior period.

Sales for the first half were RUB4.35 trillion compared with RUB2.90 trillion the year before.

The company said net sales in the period to Europe and other countries rose 93% to RUB702.41 billion.

Write to Anthony O. Goriainoff at anthony.orunagoriainoff@dowjones.com

Corrections & Amplifications

This item was corrected at 0827 GMT to reflect that Gazprom's first-half sales were RUB4.35 trillion compared with RUB2.90 trillion the year before. The original version incorrectly said that sales were RUB4.35 billion compared with RUB2.90 billion in the penultimate paragraph.

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

08-31-21 0419ET