The Gazprom Headquarters hosted today a working meeting of Alexey Miller, Chairman of the Gazprom Management Committee, Jeannot Krecke, Economy and Foreign Trade Minister of Luxembourg, Etienne Schneider, President of Soteg SA and Jean Lucius, Director General of Soteg SA.

The meeting discussed the progress with joint actions as part of the earlier signed cooperation agreements between Gazprom and Soteg SA as well as potential interaction within the energy projects, in third countries inclusive.

The parties confirmed their mutual interest in furthering the partnership ties. It was particularly emphasized that successful implementation of joint projects would promote Gazprom’s strategy to enter the European final consumer market.

Background:

Luxembourg is almost fully reliant on natural gas imports.

Luxembourg’s Soteg SA was established in 1974. The company’s shareholding structure is as follows: the Government holds 21 per cent, Arcelor – 20 per cent, E.ON Ruhrgas AG – 20 per cent, Cegedel – 19 per cent, Saar-Ferngas – 10 per cent and SNCI – 10 per cent. Soteg SA is a major natural gas and power energy supplier in Luxemburg.

In April 2007 Gazprom Marketing & Trading Ltd. and Soteg SA signed the Memorandum of Understanding to set up a joint venture to construct in Germany a Combined-Cycle Plant (CCP) on a parity basis. The CCP with the total capacity of 800 MW is planed to be constructed in the town of Eisenhuttenstadt. A part of produced power energy will be sold by the joint venture directly to industrial consumers under long-term arrangements, with the rest to be marketed by Gazprom Marketing & Trading Ltd. and Soteg SA.

In May 2007 Gazprom and Soteg SA signed the Joint Action Agreement as well as the Operational Agreement on financial and supply services for the Combined-Cycle Plant (CCP) construction project in Germany.