Russ Oil-Gas

RBC, 29.10.2008, Moscow 13:08:40 – Gazprom expects its revenue from the sale of natural gas to Europe to decline in 2009 due to a fall in global hydrocarbon prices, Andrei Kruglov, deputy chairman of the Russian gas monopoly's executive board, told a UBS conference today. He noted, however, that the decrease would be offset by higher domestic gas prices. At the same time, Gazprom's revenue and net profit are expected to reach their record highs in 2008. Kruglov added that the share of revenue from gas sales to Europe in Gazprom's total revenue would gradually decrease as Gazprom would switch to setting equal like-for-like gas prices in Russia and abroad. He also expressed the opinion that domestic prices would rise 20 percent on average in 2009.