MOSCOW, June 20 (RIA Novosti) - A senior executive of Russia's largest independent crude producer, LUKoil [RTS: LKOH], said Tuesday that domestic prices for natural gas could triple in the next few years to $100 per 1,000 cubic meters.
"In the next three to four years, the domestic price of natural gas in Russia will come close to $100 per 1,000 cubic meters," LUKoil Vice President Leonid Fedun told an international investor conference.
He said the Russian economy was suffering from a disproportion in hydrocarbon prices and that LUKoil was looking to expand its gas operations to redress the imbalance.
"We will become Europe's second largest natural gas producer after Gazprom," he said.
Natural gas production in Russia is far more profitable than oil production as gas producers enjoy lower taxes, Fedun said.
He reiterated LUKoil's target to double the recovery of hydrocarbons from its present reserves to 4 million barrels per day within a decade's time.
In 2005, the company reported a 4.6% year-on-year growth in oil production to 1.8 million bbl/d and a 16.9% increase in natural gas output to 7.57 billion cu m.
