Essen (Germany) hosted today the sixth meeting of the Coordinating Council between Gazprom and E.ON Ruhrgas AG on sci-tech cooperation, personnel training and career development.

The meeting was moderated by the Council Co-Chairpersons: Sergey Khomyakov, Deputy Chairman of the Management Committee and Vlada Rusakova, Member of the Management Committee, Head of the Strategic Development Department on behalf of Gazprom; and Henning Deters, Member of the Board of Management, Head of Supply, Trading and Infrastructure Divisions, and Dr. Thomas Koenig, Member of the Board of Management and Director of Labor Relations on behalf of E.ON Ruhrgas AG.

The meeting participants delivered speeches on the current and further cooperation between Gazprom and E.ON Ruhrgas in personnel training and career development, research on top-priority sci-tech issues, including energy efficiency and environmental protection.

Special attention was paid to the following cooperation areas: promoting natural gas utilization as a transport fuel and developing corrosion protection technologies for gas pipelines.

After the meeting the parties expressed their satisfaction with the outcomes of interaction between Gazprom and E.ON Ruhrgas in sci-tech and HR management areas.

Background:

E.ON AG is Europe's largest private power and gas concern. Since February 2003 E.ON Ruhrgas AG (before July 1, 2004 Ruhrgas AG) has been a subsidiary of E.ON AG and is responsible for the group's gas business in Europe, including natural gas production, marketing, transportation and storage.

In the early 1970s Ruhrgas became one of the first large buyers of Russian gas in Western Europe.

Currently, the cooperation between Gazprom and E.ON Ruhrgas is not limited to gas trading. The companies jointly participate in the Yuzhno-Russkoye oil and gas field development as well as the Nord Stream gas pipeline construction.

Moreover, Gazprom and E.ON Ruhrgas deepen their cooperation pursuant to the Sci-tech Cooperation Program for 2009–2011.