Russia's future natural gas exports to China will be equivalent to around one third of its Europe-bound gas supplies, Gazprom spokesman Sergei Kupriyanov said on Monday.
"I believe that the volume of gas supplies to China will be about a third of the volume of our European gas supplies," Kupriyanov said in an interview with international news channel Russia Today.
"The eastern market will clearly not be as large as the European market, simply because it began developing later, but its development will be more intensive than the European market over the coming years," he said.
Gazprom Deputy CEO Alexander Medvedev earlier said that the Russian energy giant planned to increase gas exports to countries outside the Commonwealth of Independent States by 13% in 2010 from the current year to 160.8 billion cubic meters and foreign currency proceeds by 18% to $50.3 billion.
In 2009, Gazprom expects to receive over $40 billion in foreign currency proceeds from its gas exports to non-CIS countries.
Gas exports to non-CIS countries in 2009 are expected to reach 142.5 billion cubic meters.
MOSCOW, December 7 (RIA Novosti)
