* Says EBITDA decline to be same size as at Gazprom Neft
* Borrowed $11 bln in H1, more than $4.5 bln from Sberbank
* Says supplies to Europe customers fell 32 percent in H1
* H1 gas price for Europe customers fell to $336 per tcm
(Recasts with details of borrowing)
By Anton Doroshev
MOSCOW, July 20 (Reuters) - Russian Gazprom borrowed $11 billion in the first half of 2009, more than $4.5 billion of which came from Sberbank, and said on Monday its core earnings halved in the first quarter.
In a memorandum to investors released ahead of a Eurobond issue, Gazprom said on Monday it expected a decline in its adjusted EBITDA for the first quarter of "the same magnitude" as the 56 percent decline in the EBITDA of its oil arm, Gazprom Neft.
However, Gazprom said there was "no strict correlation" between its results and those of Gazprom Neft. "We currently anticipate that the decrease in adjusted EBITDA... for the three months ended March 31, 2009... will be of a similar magnitude as recently reported by Gazprom Neft," it said.
It noted that Gazprom Neft's adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) fell 56 percent year-on-year in the first quarter.
Russia's most indebted company also said it had borrowed more than $11 billion in the first six months of this year and redeemed $5.3 billion.
Its most active lender was another state-controlled firm, Sberbank, which provided Gazprom with more than $4.5 billion, Gazprom said in the memorandum, which detailed the biggest loans Gazprom took in the first half.
Gazprom is expected to post results for the first quarter of 2009 in the second half of August.
It said it had lowered its gas supplies to European customers under long-term contracts by 32 percent in the period January to June compared to the same period a year ago. This brought the supply volumes to 60.4 billion cubic meters from 89.1 bcm a year earlier, it said.
The company also said its natural gas price for European customers averaged at $336 per thousand cubic meters for the first six months of this year compared to $372 for January to June 2008.
Gazprom Neft said last month that lower oil prices and weaker demand had combined with higher inflation and rising costs to hit its first-quarter net profit, which plummeted 76 percent year-on-year to $335 million.
Parent company Gazprom, the state-run gas export monopoly, has been suffering from a sharp drop in foreign demand for its gas as well as falling prices.
Following are details of Gazprom's biggest loans taken in the first half of this year.
Vneshekonombank, $375 million, January
Sberbank, $724 million, December
Vneshekonombank, $150 million, March
White Nights Finance B.V., $1.3 billion, March
Sberbank, $3 billion, April
Russian Agricultural Bank, $600 million, April
GPB Credit Risk Management S.A., $600 million, April
Sberbank, $857 million, May
MDM, $157 million, May
TKB, $175 million, May
Vneshekonombank, $150 million, June
Commerzbank and Dresdner Bank, 298 million euros
Rouble bonds, 25 billion rouble
Eurobonds, $2.25 billion and 500 million Swiss francs, April
(Writing by Vladimir Soldatkin and Simon Shuster; editing by Karen Foster and Dan Lalor) ($1 = 0.7063 euro)