Headed by Alexey Miller, Chairman of the Gazprom Management Committee a Gazprom’s delegation visited the Socialist People's Libyan Arab Jamahiriya.

Within the visit the delegation met with Shokri Mohamed Ghanem, Chairman of the Management Committee of the Libyan National Oil Corporation.

The parties positively appreciated the status of implementing the provisions set out in the Memorandum of Cooperation signed between the companies. Additionally, the participants discussed further steps aimed at deepening cooperation in the oil and gas area including the issues related to the establishment of a joint venture for the implementation of projects for gas and oil fields exploration & development and energy infrastructure facilities construction in Libya. The parties also agreed to establish a joint venture aimed at upgrading the existing oil refining capacities and constructing new ones.

A working meeting between Alexey Miller and Mu'ammar al-Qadhafi, a leader of the Libyan Revolution was held. During the meeting the parties expressed opinions

on the opportunities for deepening a mutually beneficial long-term partnership between Gazprom and Libya.

The parties discussed the interaction issues as part of the preparation for the next meeting of the Gas Exporting Countries Forum.

The meeting members reviewed issues of marketing policy coordination. The Libyan party positively appreciated Gazprom’s proposals concerning the potential purchase of total export volume of gas, oil and LNG from Libya at competitive prices.

The parties agreed to initiate the thematic negotiations on the purchase of the currently available hydrocarbon volumes from the Libyan party.

The trends of the global oil market were considered at the meeting. The parties agreed that the hydrocarbons price would grow, while the gas price would further move towards the global oil prices (in terms of a ton of fuel equivalent).

Gazprom accepted the Libyan party’s proposal to negotiate the potential construction of new capacities to transmit gas from Libya to Europe.

Supplementing the agreements reached during the Russian Federation President’s visit to Libya in this April, the parties agreed to establish in the shortest possible time a joint venture to operate in third countries, in particular, in Africa.

Before end July, a delegation of Gazprom’s experts will arrive to Libya for elaborating agreements achieved in all areas of cooperation.

Background:

A key challenge facing Gazprom is access to new markets, expansion of the resource base and diversification of production capacities. While meeting these challenges, Gazprom is active in North Africa and primarily in Libya, where the Company has set up a Tripoli based special-purpose company Gazprom Libya.

Between 2006 and 2007 Gazprom obtained through bidding procedures the right to explore for and produce hydrocarbons at the prospective licensed blocks 19 (Mediterranean offshore) and 64 (300 km south of Tripoli).

In December 2007, following the asset swap deal with BASF, Gazprom acquired a 49 per cent stake in Libya’s oil concessions C 96 and C 97 owned by Wintershall AG. These concessions are governed by the agreements effective till 2026. The concessions include nine fields with As Sarah as the largest. Current oil production is about 6 mtpa. Geological exploration is still in progress and work is underway to maintain the current production level at the concession C 96 and to boost production at C 97.

As part of its Strategic Cooperation Agreement with Italy’s ENI, Gazprom is negotiating the possibility of swapping assets including assets in Libya.

Founded in 1970, the Libyan National Oil Corporation (NOC) is currently engaged in hydrocarbon exploration and production on the territory of Libya. NOC owns a petrochemical complex in Ras Lanuf and a number of refineries.

In April 2008 Gazprom and the National Oil Corporation of Libya signed a Memorandum on Cooperation. Pursuant to the Memorandum, the parties will study the possibilities of implementing joint projects in the energy area.