The company has already made contractual changes that remove restrictions on reselling gas and that require Gazprom to forgo any advantage gained from making gas supplies conditional on acceptance of gas pipelines. These changes came about because of pressure from the commission and increased competition on the European energy market.

"We are also on track to hit this year an absolute record of annual gas exports, both of Soviet times and the history of modern Russia,"

Russia's output of oil products is expected to fall by about 2.5 percent in 2017 due to further work on a massive refinery modernisation programme aimed at boosting fuel quality, a deputy energy minister said.

U.S. and European Union sanctions and a collapse in global oil prices have hurt the Russian economy and starved it of much-needed foreign investment.

Russia's gas production, including associated petroleum gas, is estimated at 637 Bcm in 2016, which would represent a marginal increase of 0.2% year on year, energy minister Alexander Novak said late Tuesday.

Средняя цена на нефть Urals за период мониторинга с 15 ноября по 14 декабря 2016 года составила $47,82068 за баррель, или $349,1 за тонну.

Alexey Miller, Chairman of the Gazprom Management Committee, and Rainer Seele, Chairman of the OMV Executive Board, signed the Basic Agreement regarding the asset swap. The signing ceremony took place in the presence of Hans Jörg Schelling, Minister of Finance of the Republic of Austria, and Anatoly Yanovsky, Deputy Minister of Energy of Russia.

Rosneft and the China National Petrochemical Company (ChemChina) signed a Heads of Agreement on establishing a Joint Venture. The document was signed by Rosneft Chief Executive Officer Igor Sechin, and General Manager of ChemChina Yang Xingqiang.

Gazprom joins Lukoil PJSC and Zarubrezhneft OAO in Russia, Iran’s Oil Minister Bijan Namdar Zanganeh said in Tehran at the signing ceremony. Salbali Karimi, managing director of the Iranian Central Oil Fields Co., and Alexander Dyukov, chairman of the management board and chief executive officer of Gazprom Neft, signed the memorandum of understanding.

President-elect Donald Trump named the head of Exxon Mobil Corp, Rex Tillerson, as his choice for U.S. secretary of state on Tuesday and won backing from some Republican foreign policy figures ahead of a possible Senate fight over the oilman's ties to Russia.