The Gazprom headquarters hosted today a working meeting between Alexey Miller, Chairman of the Company’s Management Committee and Marcel Kramer, Chairman of the Executive Board and CEO of Gasunie.

The parties considered the prospects for optimizing and expanding Gasunie’s gas transmission system in order to raise the efficiency of Russian gas supplies to European consumers.

Alexey Miller and Marcel Kramer put an emphasis on the pre-construction operations for the Nord Stream gas pipeline.

Background:

Gasunie is a European gas company. Gasunie’s gas transmission network comprises over 15,000 kilometers of pipelines in the Netherlands and in northern Germany and some 1,300 gas receiving stations. The network ranks among the largest high-pressure gas pipeline networks in Europe. The annual gas throughput totals approximately 125 billion cubic meters per annum. Gasunie offers transportation services through its subsidiaries: Gas Transport Services B.V. in the Netherlands and Gasunie Deutschland in Germany. In addition, the company provides a number of services in the gas infrastructure field, including natural gas storage and LNG.

On November 6, 2007 Gazprom and Gasunie signed an Umbrella Agreement to partner in the Nord Stream and BBL gas pipeline projects. On June 10, 2008 Gasunie was registered as a new shareholder in the Nord Stream AG shareholder register.

The Nord Stream gas pipeline is a fundamentally new route of Russian gas exports to Europe. The pipeline will stretch some 1,200 kilometers across the Baltic Sea from the Portovaya Bay (Vyborg) to the German coast (Greifswald).

Nord Stream AG was set up in December 2005 to engineer, construct, and operate the Nord Stream gas trunkline. Nord Stream AG has the following shareholding structure: Gazprom – 51 per cent, Wintershall Holding AG – 20 per cent, E.ON Ruhrgas AG – 20 per cent and Gasunie – 9 per cent.