A Gazprom delegation, led by the Company’s Management Committee Chairman Alexey Miller, paid a working visit today to the Republic of Kazakhstan. As part of the visit Alexey Miller met with Kazakhstan’s President Nursultan Nazarbaev.

The parties discussed the Gazprom – Kazakhstan cooperation deepening in the energy sector.

Particular attention was paid to the review of the progress with the Agreement on the major principles for the creation and operation of the joint venture based on the Orenburg GPP.

In addition, the parties considered the possibilities for the joint development of the cross-border Imashevskoye gas and condensate field and the Tsentralnaya structure in the Caspian Sea.

A focus also fell on the reciprocal gas deliveries and the Precaspian gas pipeline project execution as well as preparation of the documents required for decision-making on expanding its design capacity.

Based on the meeting results the parties praised the level of the bilateral cooperation and underscored the importance of more intensive cooperation in hydrocarbon exploration, production, marketing and transportation.

Background:

In June 2002 Gazprom and the KazMunaiGaz National Company

established on a parity basis and registered in the Republic of Kazakhstan, the KazRosGaz joint venture to deal with natural gas purchase, marketing and processing (at gas treatment plants in Russia), and other businesses.

In June 2007 Gazprom and the KazMunaiGaz National Company signed the Agreement on the major principles for the creation and operation of the joint venture based on the Orenburg GPP.

The core business activity of the joint venture will be rendering of services related to the processing of hydrocarbon resources from the Orenburg Oblast and the Karachaganak field on a processing fee basis.

Currently, the Russian sector of the cross-border Imashevskoye gas and condensate field is part of the non-licensed stock of subsurface resources.

TsentrCaspneftegaz, a joint venture of Gazprom and LUKOIL is performing exploration activities in the Tsentralnaya structure in the Caspian Sea. Gazprom and LUKOIL approached NK KazMunaiGaz with a proposal to create a joint venture that would act as the project operator for the structure.

On May 12, 2007 the Presidents of Russia, Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan signed the Joint Declaration to build the Precaspian gas pipeline.

On December 20, 2007 the Governments of Russia, Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan entered into the Agreement on the Precaspian Gas Pipeline Construction.

The gas pipeline construction is targeted at transporting natural gas from fields in the Caspian Sea and other locations in Turkmenistan and the Republic of Kazakhstan to the Russian Federation.

On July 25, 2008 the Agreement was signed on Gazprom’s participation in investment projects in the gas industry of Turkmenistan. The Agreement stipulates building up the capacity of the Turkmen section of the Precaspian gas pipeline up to 30 bcm.

Pursuant to the Agreement on the Precaspian Gas Pipeline Construction, the aggregate volume of gas transportation through the Precaspian gas pipeline reaches 10 billion cubic meters per annum.

Some 1,700-km-long Precaspian gas pipeline will stretch over 500 km across Turkmenistan and some 1200 km across Kazakhstan.