Gazprom May Switch Oil, Gas Sales to Rubles as Dollar Weakens
By Dan Lonkevich and Jim Kennett

Nov. 29 (Bloomberg) -- OAO Gazprom, the world's largest natural-gas exporter, may start selling its crude and gas production in rubles rather than dollars and euros after the U.S. currency weakened.

``We are seriously thinking about selling our resources in rubles,'' Alexander Medvedev, Gazprom's deputy chief executive officer, told reporters today in New York. He didn't give a specific timeline for the decision.

The switch would happen ``sooner, rather than later,'' Gazprom Chief Financial Officer Andrei Kruglov told the same gathering of reporters. The dollar has dropped 11 percent against the euro this year, reducing the value of exports by oil-rich nations and contributing to a 49 percent jump in crude- oil prices.

The dollar's value isn't likely to be affected if the switch is limited to Gazprom because the volume of trading in Russian oil isn't enough to drag down international demand for the U.S. currency, said Michael Lynch, president of Strategic Energy & Economic Research in Winchester, Massachusetts. -