New Delhi, Feb 28 (IANS): Global gas prices are expected to rise if any material and sustained escalation in the conflict between Russia and Ukraine puts constraints on Russia's gas exports, global financial services provider firm Moody's Analytics said.

Russia is the world's largest exporter of gas.

The majority of its gas exports stay in Europe, with Germany, Italy, Turkey, Austria and France the largest recipients, the consulting firm said adding nevertheless, Asia's largest economies -- China, Japan, South Korea and India -- all source some of their gas needs from Russia.

"And although there are other large global producers that could reroute supplies, it would take time to build infrastructure and increase liquefied natural gas processing capacity."

In the meantime, however, global supplies would stay tight, it added.

As the largest gas importers in the Asia-Pacific region, Japan, South Korea, China and India use an array of suppliers to reduce dependence risk and exposure to unforeseen events such as geopolitical flare-ups and natural disasters.

Japan's largest supplier is Australia, but it also has long-term contracts with Russia, Malaysia, Qatar, and Brunei, the rating agency said.