The Gazprom headquarters hosted yesterday a working meeting among Co-Chairmen of the Joint Coordinating Committee (JCC) between Gazprom and the Agency for Natural Resources and Energy under the Japanese Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (Agency) – Alexander Ananenkov, Deputy Chairman of the Company's Management Committee and Hisayoshi Ando, Director General of the Agency's Natural Resources and Fuel Department.

The parties addressed the implementation of the decisions made during the fifth JCC meeting held in Saint Petersburg in July 2010. Special emphasis was placed on interaction in the context of the Eastern Gas Program implementation as well as on creation of gas chemical industries, gas liquefaction and compression facilities in Eastern Russia near Vladivostok for further export to Asia-Pacific markets by sea.

Background:

With its scarce domestic energy resources, Japan is the world's fourth largest energy consumer. The country annually consumes some 80 billion cubic meters of gas. The share of gas in the Japanese energy mix is currently equal to 14 per cent and it is likely to grow. 100 per cent of imported gas is delivered in the form of LNG making Japan the world's top LNG importer.

Gazprom and the Natural Resources and Energy Agency under the Economy, Trade and Industry Ministry of Japan signed the Framework Agreement of Cooperation on November 21, 2005. The Agreement sets forth the key areas of bilateral cooperation in the gas sector. The Joint Coordinating Committee (JCC) was established to implement the Agreement. The Committee held its first meeting in January 2007. The Committee comprises a Joint Working Group.

On May 12, 2009 Gazprom signed the Memorandum of Understanding with Japan's Natural Resources and Energy Agency to jointly prepare a preliminary research on creating LNG/CNG production facilities near Vladivostok.

On July 7, 2010 the fifth meeting of the JCC took place, at which the parties approved the transition to joint elaboration of the investment rationale for the project aimed at building LNG and/or CNG production and offloading facilities as well as gas processing facilities.