Today in Tomsk, during Russian-German consultations in presence of Vladimir Putin, RF President, and Angela Merkel, FRG Federal Chancellor, Alexey Miller, Chairman of Gazprom’s Management Committee and Jurgen Hambrecht, Chairman of the Board of Executive Directors, BASF AG, have signed the Agreement on assets exchange in gas production and natural gas trade.

According to the Agreement, Gazprom will increase its part in the Russian-German joint venture Wingas GmbH up to 50% minus one share. Besides, Gazprom will get its share in the capital of one of Wintershall AG group companies owing shares in geological and production assets in Lybia.

In its turn, BASF/Wintershall will acquire 25% minus one share and 10% non-voting shares in the company Severneftegazprom.

Besides, Gazprom and BASF AG will establish the joint venture Wingas Europa on a par to sell natural gas in European countries.

“The concluded agreement testifies that Russia and Germany trust each other. This promotes further development of stable and reliable partnership between Gazprom and BASF”, declared Jurgen Hambrecht.

“The reached agreements determine equal and corresponding to both companies strategic interests exchange by gas production and sale assets. All the treaties needed to put the legal dot in this Agreement have been already worked out and to be signed this year.

Our cooperation with the concern BASF is unique and include the whole cost chain from geological exploration and natural gas production in West Siberia and its transmission through the North-European gas pipeline up to distribution in joint pipeline grid in Germany and other European countries. This opens additional possibilities for the Russian gas long-term and reliable supply to Europe on competitive basis”, underlined Alexey Miller.

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BASF AG is one of the leading chemical companies in the world, running main business in the chemicals, synthetic materials, plant protection goods as well as oil and natural gas sectors. In 2005 BASF AG’s turn-over exceeded 42.7 bln Euro.

Wintershall AG, a BASF 100 percent subsidiary, is operating in the power generation sector.

Gazprom and Wintershall AG have been cooperating for over 13 years. The companies have established the joint venture WINGAS.

WINGAS constructed the Germany-based 323-km-long 8 bcm/y STEGAL and 642-km-long 13 bcm/y MIDAL gas trunk pipelines.

WINGAS is the operator of the largest German underground gas storage facility Rehden.

Severneftegazprom, Gazprom’s 100 percent subsidiary, is the li?ense owner for the Yuzhno-Russkoye field.

Natural gas recoverable reserves of the Yuzhno-Russkoye field exceed 600 bcm. Taking into consideration the present level of annual gas supplies (40 bcm) from Russia to Germany, only this field will provide gas export for 15 years to come. Seismic exploration and drilling have been already begun at the Yuzhno-Russkoye field. Gas production is planned to start in 2008.