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KARACHI, Apr 28 (Reuters) State-run Pakistan Petroleum Ltd. (PPL) on Friday reported a 41.7 percent rise in nine-month net profit, thanks to rising oil and gas production and higher prices.

PPL, which operates Pakistan's largest gas field at Sui in the troubled southwestern province of Baluchistan, earned a net profit of 9.59 billion rupees ($159.7 million) in the nine months to March 31, it said in a statement to the Karachi Stock Exchange <.kse>.

This compared with a net profit of 6.77 billion rupees for the corresponding year-ago period.

Analysts had forecast a net profit of between 8.5 and 9.6 billion rupees for the nine-month period.

The Sui field produces more than a third of Pakistan's gas. PPL also has five smaller fields in Baluchistan and the southern province of Sindh.

''The profitability growth arrives from the phased increase in wellhead gas prices of the company's major fields, Sui and Kandhkot,'' said Faraz Farooq, analyst at brokers Jahangir Siddiqui Capital Markets.

These two fields constitute around 80 percent share of PPL's gas production, and their gas wellhead prices were raised by 20 percent from Jan. 1.

In addition, the wellhead price of Qadirpur filed, where PPL has a 7 percent share, was raised by 39 percent, while those for Sawan and Miano gas fields were increased by 10-14 percent.

Gas prices in Pakistan are revised every January and July. Under a government pricing formula, PPL tariffs are expected to be increased by an average of 25 to 26 percent annually until 2007.

Analysts said that rising oil prices also had a positive impact on PPL's profits. But it was very small compared with the impact of gas price rises, as only 2 percent of PPL's revenue was contributed by oil.

PPL did not release production figures with the financial results, but analysts said the company's oil and gas production was expected to have grown by 17 and 7 percent, respectively, in July-March.

But they added that it needed to further increase production before the guaranteed price hikes end in 2007.

''PPL has a field portfolio including Sawan, Miano, Manzalai and Makori besides the declining Sui reserves, with balance recoverable reserves of approximately 4.5 TCF gas and 20.8 million barrels of oil,'' said Saad Bin Ahmed, analyst at Capital One Equities.

''PPL requires an uphill battle to attain volumetric growth and for that the company would seek avenues beyond its easy reach,'' he said.

PPL, which is high on the government's sell-off agenda, was part-privatised in July 2004, when the government sold 102.8 million shares to the public at 55 rupees each.

The state still holds a 78.4 percent stake in the firm, while 6 percent is held by the World Bank's private sector arm, International Finance Corp. The public holds 15 percent.

The government is yet to announce a bidding date for the sale of a 51 percent stake in PPL, but has pre-qualified four companies to enter the race.

PPL's stock carries a weighting of 6.57 percent on the KSE's benchmark 100-share index. At 0500 GMT, PPL shares were down 1.45 rupees at 281.05 rupees in a broader market that was down 0.69 percent.

($1=60.04 rupees) REUTERS CS SSC1152