A working meeting between Alexey Miller, Gazprom’s Management Committee Chairman, and Yuri Boiko, Chairman of Neftegaz Ukrainy’s Management Committee, was held today at Gazprom’s Headquarters.

The parties discussed cooperation between Gazprom and Neftegaz Ukrainy in the gas business. In particular, the parties addressed the issue of adjusting the Ukrainian consumers’ indebtedness for Russian gas deliveries.

A. Miller and Y. Boiko also raised the issue of activities of the International Consortium for Managing and Developing Ukraine’s Gas Transportation System (GTS).

The parties expressed satisfaction over the Consortium’s performance and the initiation of the project implementation to expand Ukraine’s GTS at the Bogorodchany-Uzhgorod section.

Reference:

On October 7, 2002, in accordance with Russia and Ukraine’s Presidents’ statements on strategic cooperation in the gas industry, dated June 9, 2002, the RF Government and Ukraine’s Cabinet of Ministers signed the Agreement on Strategic Cooperation in the Gas Industry.

Based on this Agreement, Gazprom and Naftogaz Ukrainy signed, in October 2002, the Agreement on establishing on a par the International Consortium for Managing and Developing Ukraine’s Gas Transportation System.

The Consortium’s Member Meeting held on August 26, 2003, decided that the company would first invest funds to expand Ukraine’s GTS in the Novopskovsk-Uzhgorod regions. The project must be elaborated within a deadline fixed till March 1, 2004.

At present, the parties are conducting feasibility study, elaborating the financing scheme and defining legal terms for implementing the project on the Bogorodchany-Uzhgorod section construction.

DIVISION OF RELATIONS WITH MASS MEDIA