Today, BASF announced its results for the third quarter 2014. Sales of BASF Group grew by 3% compared with the previous third quarter, reaching €18.3 billion. A sharp rise in volumes in the Natural Gas Trading business sector was mainly responsible for this growth. Income from operations (EBIT) before special items increased by €150 million to around €1.8 billion. The primary contributors to this development were the Chemicals and Oil & Gas segments, together with Other. The increase was dampened by a considerable earnings decline in the Agricultural Solutions segment.