Russia's Gazprom, the world's top gas producer said that higher gas sales to Europe boosted its first-quarter revenue and it may export more to the region than expected this year because of lower Dutch gas output and limited shipments of liquefied natural gas from the United States. 
Gazprom posted a 5% increase in first-quarter revenue to 1.74 trillion rubles about ($26.9 billion) year-on-year, due to higher gas sales to Europe in absolute terms and despite a fall in the gas price. 
Gazprom posted net profit of 362.3 billion rubles in the first-quarter. In volume terms sales increased 49% to 58.1 bcm in the first quarter from 39.1 bcm in the first quarter of 2015, it said in a statement. 
Gazprom's net debt was down to 1.783 trillion rubles at the end of March, compared to 2.083 trillion rubles as of end-2015, thanks to a stronger rouble. 
Russia's Gazprom covers around a third of Europe's gas needs and planned to ship between 165-170 billion cubic meters (bcm) to Europe this year, up from about 159 bcm in 2015.