Gazprom’s Headquarters has hosted today a working meeting between Alexey Miller, Chairman of Gazprom’s Management Committee and Thierry Desmarest, Chairman & Chief Executive Officer of the Total Group.

The meeting was held within the consultations with the firms included in a short list of bidders for the first development stage of the Shtokman gas condensate field.

The parties addressed the possibilities of developing the Shtokman field, producing liquefied natural gas (LNG) and shipping it to the USA given Total’s capacities and offers.

The parties also dealt with interaction in the exploration and development of new hard-to-reach oil and gas fields.

Joint gas production projects in third countries were considered another top priority of cooperation.

A focus of the meeting also fell on potential deepening of technical & economic cooperation while operating sour gas fields for the purpose of improving development parameters and cutting production costs, with special emphasis to be placed on the mutually beneficial use of both companies’ experience and advanced technologies in regard with the most efficient and eco-friendly utilization of gas in the energy sector.

Alexey Miller and Thierry Desmarest highly appreciated the results of joint endeavors aimed at constructing field infrastructure during stages 2 and 3 of the Persian Gulf-located South Pars field project.

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Being one of the world’s largest energy companies, the Total Group operates in over 130 countries and is involved in the entire spectrum of oil and gas business, from production to marketing.

Total is engaged in natural gas transmission and storage as well as electricity generation through the operation of gas-fired combined heat & power plants and application of renewables. The company’s activities also include natural gas, electricity, LNG, LPG and coal fuel marketing.

The Shtokman gas condensate field development is a top priority project of Gazprom in the LNG sector. So far, Gazprom has come up with a short-list of companies – its potential partners in executing the first phase of the Shtokman development project including the construction of a natural gas liquefaction plant. Said list includes such firms as Statoil, Total, Chevron, Hydro and ConocoPhillips. In the first quarter of 2006, Gazprom is resolute to select two or three companies that will form a consortium for the Shtokman project implementation.

The Shtokman field is located in the central Russian sector of the Barents Sea offshore, 650 km from the Murmansk city’s port. The field tapped gas and condensate reserves account for 3.2 tcm and 30.97 mln t, respectively.

Stages 2 and 3 of the Persian Gulf-located South Pars field were initiated in 1997 by the Consortium comprised of Total (France) – 40 per cent, Petronas (Malaysia) – 30 per cent and Gazprom – 30 per cent. The Consortium was involved in the construction of two offshore platforms each with ten production wells, two 100-km-long underwater gas pipelines and a 20 bcm/y onshore gas plant in Assalouyeh.