The Gazprom headquarters hosted today a working meeting between Alexey Miller, Chairman of the Company's Management Committee and Kairat Boranbayev, Director General – Management Board Chairman of KazRosGaz.

The parties discussed the current issues of cooperation in the gas sector paying special attention to the prospects for geological exploration of the Imashevskoye field. It was emphasized that KazRosGaz was ready for this activity that would provide a considerable progress in the resource base expansion.

Background

In June 2002 Gazprom and KazMunaiGaz National Company established a joint venture, KazRosGaz, on a parity basis and registered it in the Republic of Kazakhstan. The JV will deal with natural gas purchase, marketing and processing (at Russian gas treatment plants), and other businesses.

On September 7, 2010 Russia and Kazakhstan entered into the Intergovernmental Agreement on joint exploration and prospecting of the cross-border Imashevskoye gas and condensate field (the Agreement was enacted in January 2011). Pursuant to the Agreement, prospecting and exploration will be followed by the reserves estimation.

Gazprom and NK KazMunaiGaz were authorized to implement the Agreement.

In April 2011 Gazprom and NK KazMunaiGaz signed the Agreement identifying KazRosGaz as the Imashevskoye field operator.

The Imashevskoye field is located 60 kilometers northeast of Astrakhan in Russia and 250 kilometers southwest of Atyrau in the Kurmangazy District, Kazakhstan. It contains over 100 billion cubic meters of explored gas reserves with a hydrogen sulfide content of 15 to 17 per cent. The Russian sector of the Imashevskoye field is part of the non-licensed stock of subsurface resources.