* Russia, West in standoff over Ukraine
* Rosneft building LNG plant with ExxonMobil
* Rosneft to launch plant by 2018-19, sees gas output up (Adds details, background)
By Denis Pinchuk
MOSCOW, April 1 (Reuters) - Russia's Rosneft, saidon Tuesday it was on track to start production at its firstliquefied natural (LNG) gas plant in the country's far east in2018-2019, despite East-West tension over Ukraine.
The world's largest listed oil company by output signalledits partnership with U.S. ExxonMobil for building theplant, which will have an initial annual capacity of 5 milliontonnes, would not be affected by the standoff.
"The project is fully targeting Asia-Pacific markets. At themoment, the project's implementation is going according to theplans that were announced," Rosneft, headed by Igor Sechin, along-standing ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, said inwritten replies to Reuters.
"The launch is planned for 2018-2019," said thestate-controlled company, almost 20 percent owned by British oilmajor BP.
Rosneft said current LNG prices in Asia, at over $15 permillion British thermal units (MMBtu), would enable it tosuccessfully carry out its LNG project, in which the finalinvestment decision is expected next year.
Russia is entering the global LNG game at a time when Qatar,Australia and others are boosting their presence on the market,and prices are being driven by growing demand in theAsia-Pacific region.
Russia has only one LNG plant, which is controlled bystate-run top natural gas producer, Gazprom, and is onthe Pacific island of Sakhalin. It has an annual capacity ofaround 10 million tonnes.
EAST-WEST STANDOFF
Tensions over Russia's annexation of Crimea from Ukraine,following a referendum the West says was a sham, have pushedEast-West to their lowest level since the Cold War.
The United States and the European Union have imposedsanctions, mainly on Russian individuals, and Moscow hasresponded in kind.
Rosneft is one of two Russian companies that have won theright to ship LNG out of Russia since the Kremlin decided to endGazprom's monopoly. The other is Novatek, which iscurrently Russia's number two gas producer and is co-owned byanother Putin ally, Gennady Timchenko.
Timchenko is one of the Russian individuals targeted byWestern sanctions over the Ukraine crisis but Sechin has notbeen targeted, nor has Gazprom's chief executive, Alexei Miller.
The tensions have spurred U.S. officials to press Washingtonto speed up exports of U.S. natural gas to Europe to help reducethe continent's reliance on Russian gas, which accounts for athird of the EU's total consumption.
Rosneft said it did not expect all LNG plants announced byWashington to come on stream, saying exports could hit domesticgas prices and curb economic growth in the United States and competition would come from Canada, with its own LNG plans.
"That said, a scenario when the bulk of the projectsannounced are actually launched seems unlikely," Rosneft said.
Russia largely underestimated the shale gas revolution inthe United States which turned the country into the world'sleading gas producer, enabling it to overtake Moscow.
The United States is now set to become the world's largestoil producer, thanks to increase in shale oil output, and Russiais now testing its own unconventional oil prospects in westernSiberia.
Last year, Rosneft's gas production reached 42 billion cubicmetres (bcm), thanks to acquisitions. The company plans toincrease gas output to 100 bcm by 2020 in a move to becomeRussia's second biggest gas producer after Gazprom.
On Tuesday, it said its gas output was expected to rise toaround 55 bcm this year and over 63 bcm next year. Gazpromproduced 479 bcm last year, or 73 percent of the Russian total. (Reporting by Denis Pinchuk, Writing by Katya Golubkova,Editing by Timothy Heritage and William Hardy)