The Gazprom headquarters hosted today a working meeting between Alexey Miller, Chairman of the Company's Management Committee and Helge Lund, President and Chief Executive Officer of Statoil.

The parties discussed the current state and development prospects for the bilateral cooperation in the gas area. In particular, the meeting appreciated the ongoing preparations for Phase 1 of the Shtokman field development.

Besides, the parties examined the status of the works required for adopting the Final Investment Decision on the project.

Background

The core businesses of Statoil are oil and gas exploration and production. The company has been producing hydrocarbons on the Norwegian continental shelf for over 35 years and is the pioneer in offshore projects implementation in harsh climatic conditions. The Norwegian government is the major shareholder of Statoil (67 per cent).

The Shtokman field is located in the central part of the Russian sector of the Barents Sea.

The field's C1 reserves make up 3.9 trillion cubic meters of gas and 56 million tons of gas condensate, with 3.9 trillion cubic meters of gas and 53.3 million tons of gas condensate located within Gazprom's licensed area.

The Shtokman gas and condensate field development project is of strategic importance for Gazprom. The project implementation will give a start to a new gas production region in the Arctic shelf of Russia.

The Shtokman field will become a resource base for building up deliveries of Russian gas both by pipeline and in the form of LNG (liquefied natural gas) to domestic and foreign markets.

Gazprom neft shelf (former Sevmorneftegaz), a wholly-owned subsidiary of Gazprom, holds the gas and gas condensate exploration and production license for the Shtokman field.

Gazprom partners Total (France) and Statoil (Norway) in the Shtokman project execution.

In February 2008 Gazprom, Total and Statoil (StatoilHydro then) signed the Shareholder Agreement on establishing Shtokman Development AG, a special-purpose company to engineer, design, construct, finance and operate Phase 1 facilities intended for the Shtokman field development. Shtokman Development AG will own Shtokman Phase 1 infrastructure for 25 years, starting from the date on which the field is brought onstream.

In June 2010 Gazprom and Statoil signed the Sci-Tech Cooperation Agreement. Pursuant to the Agreement, the parties will expand cooperation in such areas as geological exploration, field development, technologies and equipment development for hydrocarbons transportation, environmental protection of the northern seas and territories, and energy saving.