Energy giant Gazprom generates 20% of budget revenue - Medvedev

MOSCOW, May 27 (RIA Novosti) - Gazprom contributes around 20% of the federal budget's revenues, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, who used to head the energy giant's board of directors, said on Tuesday.

"Around 20% of federal budget revenue comes from Gazprom, whose capitalization has increased 46 times since 2000," Medvedev said, describing the company's role as "exemplary."

Gazprom's market capitalization currently stands at $362 billion.

Medvedev said Gazprom faced extremely ambitious tasks, including the launch of the Nord Stream and South Stream gas pipelines, Far East ventures, and new projects in the oil sector, electric power and other areas.

The Nord Stream pipeline, which Gazprom is building together with Germany's E.ON under the Baltic Sea at an estimated cost of $12 billion will pump Russian natural gas directly to Germany.

The South Stream project is planned to transport 10 billion cu m of Russian gas annually across the Black Sea to the Balkans and onto other European countries, with the first deliveries scheduled to start in 2013.

Gazprom also holds a controlling stake in the Sakhalin-2 project in Russia's Far East, with the project's estimated reserves of 150 million metric tons (1.1 billion barrels) of oil and 500 billion cubic meters of natural gas.