OAO Bashneft, the Russian oil producer controlled by billionaire Vladimir Yevtushenkov’s AFK Sistema, said first-quarter profit jumped 53 percent, beating estimates, as oil output and prices rose. Net income advanced to $370 million from $242 million a year earlier, Bashneft said today in a statement. That was more than a median estimate of $359 million from six analysts surveyed by Bloomberg News. Bashneft boosted oil output 9.1 percent to average 3.68 million metric tons in the quarter, or 291,000 barrels a day, the company said. Prices for Urals blend, Russia’s benchmark export crude, rose 36 percent to average $102.20 a barrel, the Ufa, Bashkortostan-based company said. Revenue advanced 42 percent to $4.14 billion, and earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization rose 39 percent to $856 million, the company said. In April, Bashneft agreed to sell 25.1 percent of its largest new development, the Trebs and Titov fields in the Arctic, for $167 million to OAO Lukoil, Russia’s second-largest oil producer and owner of the regional export terminal. Sistema may sell a 25 percent stake in Bashneft to India’s Oil & Natural Gas Corp. this year as it pursues growth, Sistema Chief Executive Mikhail Shamolin said in April. Sistema, which also owns 49 percent of OAO Russneft, aims to build oil business to 1.2 million barrels a day output, Yevtushenkov said in January. To contact the reporter on this story: Stephen Bierman in Moscow at sbierman1@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story: Will Kennedy at wkennedy3@bloomberg.net

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