MOSCOW, December 17. /TASS/. Russia’s state-run gas giant Gazprom has supplied 170 bcm of gas to the non-CIS countries between January 1 and December 15, 2016, or 11.9% up against the same period of 2015, the company said in a statement on Saturday.

"In absolute terms the increase has amounted to 18.1 billion cubic meters (bcm). It is compatible to the total volume of gas that Gazprom exported in 2015 to such major consumers as France and Poland," the statement said.

In particular, exports of gas to the UK increased by 6.15 bcm (57.6%), to Germany - by 3.75 bcm (8.7%), to the Netherlands - 1.84 bcm (83.6%), to France - by 1.83 bcm (19.9%), to Poland - by 1.9 bcm (22%), to Austria - by 1.54 bcm (36.5%), to Denmark - by 1 bcm (158.2%) and to Greece - by 0.7 bcm (39.5%).

"The absolute record of annual export of the Russian gas to the non-CIS countries, which Gazprom set in 2013, has been beaten as well as the historical maximum level of our supplies to the largest consumer, Germany, recorded in 2015 (has been surpassed)," Gazprom CEO Alexei Miller said.

"The role of Russian gas in the European market is growing," he said. "Both we and our foreign partners are motivated to boost reliability of supplies."

"That is our common task and we are consistently solving it," he added.

In 2013 Gazprom sold 162.7 bcm of gas to the countries that are not former Soviet republics. In 2015 the export of Russian gas to Germany stood at 45.3 bcm but in 2016, from January 1 to December 15, it climbed to 47 bcm.