Russia's Gazprom sees 2018 gas output rising to 475.8 bcm

(Adds detail)

MOSCOW, April 25 (Reuters) - Russia's Gazprom, the world's biggest gas producer, expects to increase output by about 1 percent this year, Deputy Chief Executive Officer Vitaly Markelov has told an in-house magazine.

Gazprom expects output of 475.8 billion cubic metres (bcm) versus 471 bcm in 2017 as it rebounds from a low of 418.5 bcm in 2015 which reflected a clash with Ukraine, once Moscow's main gas buyer, as well as Western sanctions.

Gazprom stopped publishing monthly output data in 2015.

In a separate interview with the magazine, Thilo Wieland, management board member at Germany's Wintershall, said that the company would continue to finance the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline project.

It is not immediately clear if the interview was conducted before or after Alexei Miller, the CEO of Gazprom, was included in the U.S. list of so-called Specially Designated Nationals, sanctioned for alleged meddling in the 2016 U.S. election and other "malign activity" earlier this month.

Five European energy firms are financing Nord Stream 2: German energy groups Uniper (Swiss: UNIPE.SW - news) and Wintershall, Anglo-Dutch group Shell (LSE: RDSB.L - news) , Austria's OMV (IOB: 0MKH.IL - news) and France's Engie (LSE: 0LD0.L - news) .

The European Union has been sceptical about the project, which is aimed at doubling the existing pipeline annual capacity to 110 bcm, fearing this will increase Europe's reliance on Russian energy imports.

Investment in the pipeline, which will cross the Baltic Sea from Russia to Germany, is seen at 9.5 billion euros ($11.6 billion).

($1 = 0.8203 euros) (Reporting by Vladimir Soldatkin and Oksana Kobzeva; editing by Polina Ivanova and Jason Neely)