Russ Oil-Gas

MOSCOW, August 14 (RIA Novosti) - Gazprom increased gas exports to Europe and former Soviet republics 11%, year-on-year, in the second quarter of 2008 to 61 billion cubic meters, the Russian energy giant said Thursday. Gazprom supplied 41.5 billion cubic meters of natural gas worth 286.26 billion rubles ($11.8 billion) to Europe and 19.5 billion cubic meters worth 64.62 billion rubles ($2.7 billion) to the former Soviet republics, the energy giant said. Gazprom said it increased deliveries to almost every country in Western Europe - its major export market - although volumes fell in Greece and Turkey. This year, Gazprom intends to export over 163 billion cubic meters of natural gas to countries outside the Commonwealth of Independent States, a loose association of former Soviet republics except the Baltic states of Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia, and expects to earn around $64 billion, the energy giant earlier said.