Gazprom's natural gas exports declined by 21% year-on-year to 143.3 billion cubic meters in the first nine months of 2009, the Russian energy giant said on Monday.

Gazprom exported 97.47 bcm of natural gas to Europe in the reporting period, 20.7% against January-September 2008.

Natural gas exports to the CIS and the Baltic states stood at some 46 bcm, down 22% against the first nine months of 2008.

Alexander Medvedev, a deputy Gazprom chairman and head of the company's export arm, Gazprom Export, said earlier the energy giant expected gas exports revenue to exceed $40 billion in 2009.

Gazprom posted $65 billion in gas export revenues in 2008, 60% up against the 2007 volume.

The Gazprom official also said earlier that gas exports, excluding the amount meant for the CIS, would decrease by 22% to 142.5 bcm in 2009. He said the company could repeat its 2008 record, when it sold 1,000 cubic meters of gas for $407, within the next two years, or in 2012 at the latest.

Medvedev forecast that Gazprom, whose share of the European market fell from its traditional 25% early this year, would reach 33% by the end of the next decade.

According to the Federal Customs Service, Russia exported 174.3 bcm of natural gas worth $66.4 billion last year.

MOSCOW, November 16 (RIA Novosti)