Gazprom Neft, the oil producing arm of Russian...

Gazprom Neft"s net profit decline was worse than the profit forecast of analysts who expected net profit to fall 29.4% to $3.3 billion.

Revenue in the reporting period declined 29% to $24.17 billion, the company said in a statement.

Gazprom Neft attributed its revenue decline to lower global prices of oil and petroleum products.

"In 2009, Gazprom Neft, like all integrated oil companies, faced a challenging economic environment, including sharply lower prices and demand. We successfully used the year to advance our strategic goals by expanding our upstream and downstream portfolios in Russia and overseas and developing our strong pipeline of growth and improvement projects," the statement said.

Gazprom Neft is Russia"s fifth largest oil producer in terms of crude oil output. In 2009, the company produced 47.88 million metric tons of oil (962,000 barrels per day) or 3.5% more than in 2008.

MOSCOW, March 10 (RIA Novosti)