* Novatek hopes output will not drop this year
* Sees tough months ahead as consumption falls further
* Russian gas demand recovery possible from Sept
(Adds details, quotes, background)
By Vladimir Soldatkin
ST PETERSBURG, Russia, June 9 (Reuters) - Novatek, Russia's largest independent gas firm, will suffer from plunging gas demand for several months but aims to keep output flat this year as the market improves from September, its chief executive said.
"The drop in demand within the country was more tangible in May than in the first four months of this year. Over the next couple of months, this trend could continue," Novatek CEO Leonid Mikhelson told Reuters in an interview.
"Underground storage facilities are full, so the volumes delivered into them will be minimal. But in September or October we think demand, and with it production, will begin to recover."
Gas output in Russia, the world's biggest producer, fell 12 percent in May compared with April and by 28 percent from May 2008 in response to plunging demand in Europe and at home.
Russia's state gas export monopoly Gazprom saw its own output plummet almost 35 percent year-on-year to 30.4 billion cubic metres -- the lowest level the world's largest gas producer has seen in a decade.
Novatek, which has been growing production at double-digit numbers in the past years, still saw its output rising in May by 0.9 percent versus May 2008 to 2.6 billion cubic metres.
"We will aim for our production to be no worse than last year," Mikhelson said on the sidelines of the St Petersburg Economic Forum. His comments were cleared for publication on Tuesday. Last year, Novatek extracted 30.9 bcm.
FOREIGN ASSETS
Novatek has stopped giving output forecasts since it saw demand plunge late last year. Mikhelson repeated the company's plan to raise production capacity to 45 bcm by 2010 and 65 bcm by 2015. Many market participants and analysts, who were used to Novatek's steady growth in the past years, have said they still expect the company to grow production this year.
"I'm not as much of a pessimist as some of our ministers. I think we'll overcome the crisis in about two years, although it's difficult to give an exact forecast -- there are too many unknowns," Mikhelson said.
Mikhelson said the company was looking at gas assets abroad and was on track to complete its exploration programme in Egypt.
In 2007 Novatek made its first foray outside Russia by buying 50 percent of Egypt's El Arish Offshore area and said it will spend a minimum of $40 million over the next four years.
"We continue to be interested in gas assets in third countries. We are looking at unexplored assets in practically every country in northeast Africa," he said.
He also said he believed the firm would benefit from a new shareholder, Gennady Timchenko, co-founder of oil trader Gunvor, who last month increased his stake in Novatek to 18 percent.
"I've known him for a long enough time as an exceptionally professional businessman," Mikhelson said. (Writing by Dmitry Zhdannikov, editing by Robin Paxton)