Russia may this year begin opening up its liquefied natural gas export market, currently run by public giant Gazprom, to other Russian companies, Deputy Prime Minister Arkady Dvorkovich said Tuesday.

Mr. Dvorkovich said deals "could be concluded this year" with Asian markets the first to be opened up to competition.

In February, President Vladmir Putin called on his government to open the LNG export market to competition, thus ending Gazprom's monopoly.

"The idea is to issue individual rights to export liquefied natural gas for specific projects and markets," said Mr. Dvorkovich, with those areas still to be decided.

Interested Russian companies include the country's second gas producer Novatek and oil giant Rosneft, he said.

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