The Gazprom Headquarters hosted today a working meeting between Alexey Miller, Chairman of the Company’s Management Committee and Jean de Gliniasty, the Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of France to Russia.

The discussion centered on the status and prospects for the Russia – France cooperation in the energy sector.

The parties highly appreciated the interaction between Gazprom and Total within the execution of the Shtokman project, the first phase, as well as the efforts of the special purpose company Shtokman Development AG achieved in the preparation of the front-end engineering and design (FEED) and the feasibility study (FS) for the project.

Jean de Gliniasty also highlighted the cruciality of successfully implementing the Nord Stream project for ensuring the European energy security.

In addition, special attention was paid to the modernization of Ukraine’s gas transmission system. The parties expressed a unanimous opinion that this process called for the participation of the key players involved in the European gas market – Russia as the supplier and European companies as the largest Russian gas consumers.

Background:

Gazprom supplies around 29 per cent of gas imports to France.

The cooperation between Gazprom and Gaz de France in the area of gas supply was launched in September 1975. Over this period Gazprom supplied France with more than 290 billion cubic meters of gas, with some 10 billion cubic meters supplied in 2007.

In November 2005 Gazprom and Gaz de France struck the first pipeline gas for LNG swap deal. In early December 2005 a tanker filled with LNG was sold to Shell Western LNG at the Cove Point regasification terminal (Maryland, USA).

In December 2006 Gazprom and Gaz de France signed the Agreement to extend the existing contracts for Russian gas supply to France up to 2030. In addition, an agreement was reached to launch extra gas supplies to Gaz de France via the Nord Stream gas pipeline. The annual gas supply volume will be 2.5 billion cubic meters of gas.

Gazprom also received an opportunity to directly deliver gas to final consumers in France in the amount of up to 1.5 billion cubic meters, starting from October 2007.

Being one of the largest European energy companies, GDF SUEZ was incorporated in 2008 as a result of the merger between Gaz de France and SUEZ.

GDF SUEZ deals with power generation and implements natural gas exploration, production, processing and marketing projects.

On July 13, 2007 Gazprom and Total signed the Framework Agreement on the Main Terms of cooperation in the development of the first phase of the Shtokman gas condensate field. Gazprom and StatoilHydro signed a similar Agreement on October 25, 2007.

Under the Agreements, February 2008 saw the setting up of the special purpose company, Shtokman Development AG. Gazprom holds 51 per cent in the company’s equity capital, Total and StatoilHydro hold 25 and 24 per cent respectively.