UPDATE 2-Gazprom eyes Libyan gas, oil exports

(Updates throughout)

MOSCOW/LONDON, July 9 (Reuters) - Russian gas export monopoly Gazprom (GAZP.MM: Quote, Profile, Research) wants to buy any additional natural gas produced by Libya and some of the country's oil, the North African country's top oil official said on Wednesday.

"Gazprom has expressed its willingness to buy Libyan oil and any available quantities of gas," Shokri Ghanem told Reuters, adding it did not mean Gazprom would buy all of Libya's oil.

Earlier on Wednesday, Gazprom (GAZP.MM: Quote, Profile, Research) said in a statement after its chief executive Alexei Miller met with Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi that it hoped to buy "all future volumes" of gas, oil and liquefied natural gas available for export -- at market prices.

A cooperation agreement signed in 2006 between Gazprom, which supplies about a quarter of Europe's gas, and Algeria prompted fears that Europe's biggest two suppliers could work together in a similar way to the OPEC group of oil exporters.

State-run Gazprom's latest bid to strengthen its grip on gas supplies around Europe comes as no surprise, David Cox, the president of Poyry Energy Consulting said.

"It fits with their strategy of, if not forming a gas OPEC by discussion, then doing it by just cornering all the resources," he said.

"Hydrocarbons is where they want to be and having as much of it as possible. And the amount of money they must have sloshing around in their coffers."

Cox said it was unlikely that Libya would want to commit to selling its oil to one buyer and would most likely stick to selling its crude on the open market.