Russ Oil-Gas

MOSCOW, August 14 (RIA Novosti) - Gazprom's [RTS: GAZP] said Tuesday its unconsolidated earnings calculated to Russian Accounting Standards increased 4.5% year-on-year to 865 billion rubles ($34 billion) in the first half of the year. The natural gas monopoly's income from sales of goods, products, work and services gained 9.4% to 370 billion rubles ($14.5 billion) during the reporting period. Gazprom attributed the relatively modest rise to the exceptionally cold winter of 2006, compared to this year's abnormally high winter temperatures. "Such a negligible increase in profit from sales of goods, products, work and services is mainly due to the decrease in natural gas sales due to the abnormally warm winter," the statement said.