KIEV, Nov. 24 - Ukraine??™s natural gas exports to Europe will probably fall about 40% on the year in 2005 due to a three-month ban on gas exports imposed earlier this year, an official said Thursday.

Ukraine will export about 3 bln cubic meters of gas in 2005, down from 4.9bcm exported in 2004, Oleksiy Ivchenko, the head of Naftogaz Ukrayiny and deputy energy and fuel minister, said.

The plans to revise down gas exports come amid persistent problems in gas supplies with two of Ukraine??™s biggest gas suppliers, Turkmenistan and Russia. Ukraine has been mostly re-exporting Turkmen gas to markets in Europe by using its natural gas pipelines, officials have said.

Ukraine, which exported 2.2bcm of gas to Europe in January-June, originally planned to export 5bcm of gas in 2005, Naftogaz has said.

Germany is the largest market for Ukrainian gas exports, accounting for about 73% of such exports in 2004, according to Naftogaz. Germany imported 3.6bcm of gas from Ukraine last year, Naftogaz said.

Ukraine??™s gas exports were suspended on June 24 by an order from then Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko amid concerns that the country may face shortages of gas this year.

However, Yuriy Yekhanurov, who replaced Tymoshenko on the post of the prime minister after a government reshuffle in September, had allowed the exports to resume starting Sept. 16.

The resumption of the exports came after Naftogaz had reached agreements with several private gas traders to supply additional gas volumes by the end of the year, alleviating fears of the shortages, analysts said. (sb/ez)