Gazprom sees EU fully taking contracted gas

MOSCOW, Oct 26 (Reuters) - Russia's Gazprom (GAZP.MM) expects its European customers to fully take volumes of contracted gas this year thus avoiding the need to fine them for low consumption, an executive said on Monday.

The comment from Gazprom's export chief Alexander Medvedev follows a report in The Wall Street Journal that European customers owe Gazprom $2.5 billion under take-or-pay provisions, which fix a minimum amount of gas that they must buy annually.

Medvedev also said he saw a breakthrough at talks with Poland this week about a new larger gas deal. The country has asked to increase deliveries to 11 billion cubic metres of gas next year from around 7 bcm this year.

(Reporting by Vladimir Soldatkin, writing by Dmitry Zhdannikov, Editing by Toni Vorobyova)