MOSCOW, April 02. /ITAR-TASS/. Russia’s gas production decreased by 1.6% in the first three months, as compared to the same period of the preceding year, and stood at 180,491 billion cubic meters, the central fuel and energy supervisory department said in its report made public on Wednesday.

Moreover, Russia’s gas giant Gazprom cut its output by 2.9% to 130.6 billion cubic meters.

Touching upon results of Russia’s independent gas producers, the department said that in January-March NOVATEK extracted 15.6 billion cubic meters of natural gas, Rosneft – 13.2 billion cubic meters and LUKOIL – 4.6 billion cubic meters.