Gazprom Management Committee Chairman Alexey Miller said on Monday that there is a possibility that natural gas prices will go down in the first quarter of 2012, but, however, did not specify how much the prices would be reduced.

Miler told a press conference at the refinery in Pancevo that the price of gas, which now stands at about USD 500 per 1 thousand cubic meters, is calculated on a nine-month basis, following a complex formula which tracks the oil price movements at the world's market.

He said that he discussed the cooperation between Gazprom and Serbia with Serbian President Boris Tadic, and expressed satisfaction with the cooperation that led to the output growth of more than 30 percent in the case of the Serbian Oil Industry (NIS), after its privatization in late 2008, when Gazprom Neft became the majority owner of NIS.

Miler said that NIS's resource base increased by 5.5 percent since then, and stressed that Serbian government officials assured him that the mineral rent for NIS will remain the same in the next period. Speaking of Russian gas exports to the EU market, Miler said that, when compared to 2010, the export will go up by 25 percent this year.

He also said that gas export to the EU could reach as much as 112 billion cubic meters of natural gas, and, thanks to the launching of the Nord Stream pipeline across Baltic, an even greater export of gas to EU is expected in 2012.