Today, the Gazprom Headquarters has hosted a working meeting between Alexey Miller, Chairman of the Gazprom Management Committee and Alexey Chernyshev, Governor of the Orenburg Oblast.

The parties discussed the progress in implementing the Agreement of cooperation between Gazprom and the Orenburg Oblast, particularly examining the prospects for the regional gasification as well as the necessity of debt payment by the regional consumers for gas delivered.

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The Agreement for cooperation between Gazprom and the Orenburg Regional Government was signed in March 2006.

In 2006 Gazprom supplied nearly 8.6 bcm of gas and the same amount is slated for this year.

Within 2006 the indebtedness of regional consumers for gas delivered decreased up to RUR 46.7 mln, however, is still very high and as of January 1, 2007 it accounts for nearly RUR 229 mln.

The Orenburg Oblast is currently gasified by 84.9% including 92% in cities, towns & urban settlements and 74.2% in rural area. The average rates in Russia are at 53%, 60%, 34%, respectively.

In 2005-2006 Gazprom committed RUR 1.3 billion for the Orenburg regional gasification. 8 pipelines between settlements were constructed out of this amount. In 2007 Gazprom plans to commit RUR 496 mln for the regional gasification and construct 28 pipelines between settlements with total length of 631 km.