By Dmitry Zhdannikov MOSCOW, May 28 (Reuters) -

During a visit to Russia, the world's No. 2 oil exporter, Abraham also praised Moscow's plans to boost export capacity. "Russian President Vladimir Putin's address on Wednesday, in which he called for an increase in Russia's oil export capacity and approval of new routes, I believe is very positive news for energy markets in both the medium and long term," he said." Putin criticised officials for taking months or even years to rubber stamp plans for new pipelines. Russian output hit a post-Soviet high of 9.01 million barrels per day in April, but pipeline export capacity has reached a ceiling of 4.0 million bpd raising fears that the boom in output will slow down soon.

RUSSIAN EXPORTS SEEN RISING Abraham said it was premature to talk about an inevitable slow-down in output growth on the basis of expectations that no new major pipelines can be built before the end of the decade. He said reasonably high oil prices would enable Russia to speed up construction of major links, including a pipeline to the Arctic port of Murmansk that will boost deliveries of Russian oil to the United States across the Atlantic. He also said he did not believe output would slow amid a dispute between the government and oil major YUKOS . "I don't feel overall that Russia is not contributing additional supply in the days ahead," said Abraham.

He declined to comment on YUKOS itself. YUKOS's key owner, Mikhail Khodorkovsky, who was a major supporter of Russia-U.S. energy cooperation, is facing trial on fraud and tax evasion charges. The arrest is largely seen as an attempt by the Kremlin to punish him for political activities. Abraham said he did not plan to meet executives of YUKOS, but would hold talks with gas monopoly Gazprom , oil pipeline monopoly Transneft and private oil major LUKOIL , YUKOS's main rival. LUKOIL is trying to revive a deal to tap Iraq's giant West Qurna field, but Abraham said the issue was not on his agenda.

Talks with Gazprom will focus on the liquefied natural gas (LNG) business as U.S. firms, such as ConocoPhillips , are looking for joint projects in the Russian Arctic, expecting American LNG demand to double in the next two decades. "Russia can be a partner of considerable magnitude in LNG," Abraham said. He declined to give estimates of how much additional global oil supply was needed to meet booming demand. "The market is heading in the right direction," he said, adding that he was encouraged by the fact that global oil production and inventories were higher now than a year ago.