Russia’s state-owned gas firm, Gazprom, has revealed that it is expecting to report profits this year from domestic gas sales.

The gas giant released a statement after a recent board meeting, stating, ‘in 2009 Gazprom aims to get a profit from domestic gas sales.’ The firm says that sales of gas to Russia at unregulated prices would be key to boosting its income.

Russian consumers pay an average of 1,895 roubles ($59) for 1,000 cubic metres of gas, while the export price of the gas to Europe is an average of $280.

The firm makes over 80% of its total revenues from these foreign exports, despite selling half of its gas to domestic users.

Despite the positivity this year, analysts remain cautious as Gazprom has predicted profits from domestic sales in 2007 and 2008 and failed to produce the profit on either of these two years.

Prices of gas to the domestic market are set to increase steadily until 2011 as part of a government plan to bring revenues from domestic sales in line with those from export.