Russian gas company Gazprom saw profit cut in half in the first six months of the year as the cost of natural gas it buys from Central Asia soared and demand plummetted in Europe.

The world's largest producer of natural gas on Monday reported net profit of 305.8 billion rubles ($10.6 billion) for the period, down from 609.3 billion rubles, according to financial results calculated to international standards.

The state-controlled company's total sales for the period fell slightly to 1.639 trillion rubles from 1.755 trillion, but the bottom line was hit by a 67 percent increase in the cost of gas it buys from Central Asian neighbors such as Turkmenistan.

The volume of gas sales to Europe, which buys around 20 percent of gas from Gazprom, meanwhile fell 24 percent as the global financial crisis slashed demand from large industrial consumers, the company said in a statement. But the value of those sales rose 6 percent thanks to higher prices.