Novgorod hosted a circuit meeting of the Gas Industry Commission for field development and subsurface use.

Participating in the meeting were heads and experts from the Gazprom Administration subdivisions and subsidiaries – Gazprom UGS, Gazprom export, Gazprom transgaz Kazan, Gazprom transgaz Yugorsk, Kubangazprom, Gazprom VNIIGAZ, Gazpromgeofizika, VNIPIgazdobycha, SevKavNIPIgaz, TsKBN, Gazpromenergodiagnostika as well as Orenburggeofizika, Podzemburgaz and GITAS research & production company.

The meeting participants addressed the results of gas withdrawal from UGS capacities over the 2008-2009 autumn/winter period, gas balance in underground storages as well as the major tasks relevant to preparing UGS capacities for the 2009-2010 withdrawal season.

A focus was also placed on the review of well performance over the past autumn/winter period, send-out regimes, the evaluation of capacities readiness for gas injection in 2009 as well as the study of technical capabilities for gas injection in UGS facilities during the current year.

Special attention was paid to the prospects for expanding UGS assets abroad in order to secure the reliability and flexibility of export supplies.

Based on the meeting results the Company positively evaluated the work done on gas withdrawal over the 2008-2009 autumn/winter period and defined the key challenges with regard to preparation for UGS operation during the 2008-2009 autumn/winter period.

Background

There are currently 25 Underground Gas Storage (UGS) facilities operational in the Russian Federation with the commercial gas volume of 64 billion cubic meters. The potential peak daily send-out of UGS facilities by the withdrawal season start-up accounts for 620 million cubic meters, while the daily average send-out of UGS capacities between December and February – 500 million cubic meters.

As projected, the maximum UGS daily send-out will be increased in the mid term to 758 million cubic meters.

Additionally, Gazprom stores gas in UGS facilities in Latvia, Germany, Austria and the UK as well as holds shares in companies owning and operating UGS facilities, namely ArmRosGazprom (Armenia), Latvijas Gaze (Latvia), WINGAS GmbH (Germany), and VNG AG (Germany).