MOSCOW, December 3. /TASS/. Gazprom’s gas exports to Europe will exceed 200 bln cubic meters in 2018, Deputy Chief Executive Officer of Russia’s top gas producer Alexander Medvedev said on Monday, adding that next year the company plans to reach similar volumes.

"I assume that at least 200 bln cubic meters will be exported in 2019 as well," he said.

According to Medvedev, Gazprom received requests for additional volumes of gas exports to Europe from 2020. "I want like to note that this figure - 200 bln cubic meters - is very close to the volume of our annual contract quantities. We have already received requests for additional export volumes starting from 2020. Transition to the next level of annual contract quantities is a very important topic, very interesting, including from the point of view of the development of our export gas transmission routes," he added.

According to Gazprom, requests from traditional and new customers amount to around 50 bln additional cubic meters per year in addition.

Earlier, Head of Gazprom Alexey Miller said that gas exports to Europe in 2018 could reach a record of 200 bln cubic meters. He called growth of economic activity in European countries and the long-term trend formed in recent years to reduce European production the main factors behind the growth in demand. In 2017, Gazprom delivered 194.4 bln cubic meters of gas to Europe, which is 8.4% more than a year earlier.

Medvedev also said that the procedure of negotiations with China on the ‘Western Route’ of the Power of Siberia gas pipeline will be determined in near future. "I can say that talks on the ‘Far Eastern’ route are in line with schedules. As regards deliveries over the ‘Western Route," the procedure for holding such negotiations will be agreed at the earliest future. The impetus to such talks will be given at the highest level," the top manager said.

Currently, Gazprom is building the Power of Siberia gas pipeline, which will pump natural gas from the giant Chayanda oil and gas condensate deposit in Yakutia and the Kovykta gas condensate field in the Irkutsk Region in Eastern Siberia to deliver gas to the domestic market (via Khabarovsk to Vladivostok) and further on for exports to China. The so-called ‘eastern route’ stipulates the supply of 38 bln cubic meters of natural gas to China’s eastern regions annually within 30 years to be launched in end-2019. In May 2014, Gazprom and China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) signed a respective sales and purchase agreement. The ‘western route’, which envisions the delivery of 30 bln cubic meters of gas from Russia’s Yamal-Nenets Autonomous Region through the Altai Region to northwest China within 30 years, has been defined as the second in terms of importance.