The chief executive of Russia's state gas monopoly OAO Gazprom (GAZP.RS) forecast Thursday that gas prices for European consumers could rise to more than $500 per 1,000 cubic meters by the end of 2008.
"We expect the price of gas in Europe to go beyond $500 by the end of 2008," Gazprom CEO Alexei Miller, told journalists on the sidelines of a visit by President Dmitry Medvedev to energy-rich Azerbaijan.