The Gazprom headquarters hosted today a working meeting between Alexey Miller, Chairman of the Company’s Management Committee and Marcel Kramer, Chief Executive Officer of the South Stream project.

The parties discussed the current issues relevant to the transnational gas pipeline construction and defined the top-priority objectives to be met in the near future. The prioritized directions included the project promotion in the European Union and elsewhere, completion of feasibility studies (FS) for the national sections and the Consolidated FS for the entire project, the environmental impact assessment procedure and obtaining all the permits necessary for the construction startup.

Alexey Miller noted that the experience gained by Marcel Kramer with the world’s largest energy companies and international institutions related to the oil and gas market would aid in successful and timely execution of the South Stream project.

Background:

The South Stream project is implemented with a view to diversify the routes of natural gas supply to European consumers and envisages construction of a gas pipeline running under the Black Sea to the countries of Southern and Central Europe.

A provision is made to gradually build up the South Stream capacity. The projected throughput capacity of the South Stream offshore section will reach a total of 63 billion cubic meters per year by late 2015.

Intergovernmental agreements were signed with Bulgaria, Serbia, Hungary, Greece, Slovenia, Croatia and Austria in order to implement the project’s onshore section beyond Russia.

At present, the South Stream Consolidated FS is being elaborated including the studies for the offshore section and for the respective gas pipelines in the countries of Southern and Central Europe.

Prior to his entry in the South Stream project, Marcel Kramer was Chairman of the Executive Board and Chief Executive Officer of Gasunie. Throughout his career Marcel Kramer worked, inter alia, for the Oil and Coal Department of the Dutch Ministry of Economic Affairs, served in oil- and gas-related positions at the NATO Headquarters in Brussels and headed the Oil Industry Division at the International Energy Agency in Paris.

Marcel Kramer will be responsible for the comprehensive execution of the South Stream project including the engineering, permitting process, financing, construction and operation of the project’s Black Sea section as well as its onshore sections in foreign countries.