E.ON Profit Soars on Back of Gazprom Price Reduction

German utility E.ON has seen its profits, sales and revenue soar largely, it says, on the back of lowered prices from major Russian supplier Gazprom.

The company said today that it had more than tripled net income for the first half of this year, bringing the figure up from €933 million to €3.31 billion. The company said a decrease in prices from Gazprom, following renegotiations of the terms of an oil-linked gas contract, had a definite effect on the company's earnings.

"Our solid first-half results demonstrate that we're meeting our existing challenges decisively," chief executive of E.ON, Johannes Teyssen said. "We successfully renegotiated our gas-procurement contracts, and the transformation of our company through our E.ON efficiency-enhancement program is moving forward according to plan." 

The company also noted an increase in gas sales, up by 11 per cent to 674.1 Mrd kwh, an increase that helped to allievate the losses in sales the company faced when it was required to close down its nuclear power generation. The company was required to discontinue nuclear power sales and generation, as were all German nuclear producers, under a mandate from the German government in the wake of the Fukishima nuclear disaster in 2011.

Electricity sales from the company remained unchanged from last year.