Higher production boosted the first-half earnings of Russian gas producer and LNG exporter Novatek more than double compared to year-ago levels, despite lower sales volumes and struggles with its new Arctic LNG 2 export project. Russia’s top LNG producer and exporter reported on Wednesday a net profit of $3.94 billion (341.7 billion Russian rubles) for the first half of 2024, which was 2.2 times higher as compared to the first half of 2023. Total revenues also rose but so did operating expenses. Novatek’s daily…