The Headquarters of Gazprom hosted today a meeting of the Coordinating Committee for Environmental Protection chaired by Alexander Ananenkov, Deputy Chairman of the Company’s Management Committee, Head of the Coordinating Committee.

Participating in the meeting were Valery Golubev, Deputy Chairman of the Gazprom Management Committee, Deputy Chairman of the Coordinating Committee, as well as the heads of the Company’s core business units.

The Committee approved the 2008 Action Plan providing for the consideration of a new edition of the Company’s environmental policy, issues related to environmental safety of the major projects of Gazprom, as well as environmental aspects influencing the capitalization.

The meeting also addressed the issue of developing design documentation for potential joint projects to be executed under the Kyoto Protocol mechanisms. In this regard, the tasks were given to develop greenhouse gas emissions reduction projects in compliance with the requirements of the Russian Federation Ministry of Economic Development and Trade, as well as the international standards.

The participants of the meeting discussed the results of the independent audit of the environmental protection system of Gazprom. The audit was carried out by FRECOM consulting company and aimed at assessing compliance of the Gazprom environmental management system with the requirements of the Russian legislation and ISO 14001 international standard (environmental management), as well as at defining the directions to improve the system.

The audit confirmed that Gazprom carries out full-scale work oriented to the observation of environmental laws and standards; allocates significant funds for such activities; employs the relevant highly-experienced staff and technologies.

The audit report states that in 1995 Gazprom was one of the first Russian companies to approve the corporate Environmental Policy and is currently developing a version of its third edition. The document underlines the effective operation of the Company’s in-process control, as well as the importance of integration between environmental and energy-saving issues.

Based on the audit results, Gazprom was provided with recommendations and a respective Plan to further enhance the environmental management system to be followed by certification of compliance with ISO 14001 international standards.

The Coordinating Committee made a decision to entrust the Company’s core units with developing an Action Plan based on the environmental audit results and submitting such a Plan to the Company’s Management Committee Chairman for approval.

Reference:

The Gazprom Coordinating Committee for Environmental Protection was established in October 2007 in order to provide an integrated approach and coordinate the environmental activities of the Company’s structural units and subsidiaries.

The major goals of the Committee are as follows:

• comprehensive evaluation of the effectiveness of the Gazprom Group environmental activities;
• introduction of an integrated environmental management system;
• coordination of interaction of Gazprom with environmental authorities and public entities.

The environmental management system of Gazprom focuses on ensuring the implementation of the Company’s environmental policy in each and every chain of the vertically-integrated Gazprom Group and unites efforts of over two thousand specialists. The Energy-Saving and Environmental Protection Directorate of Gazprom is the central coordinating body.

The Gazprom Coordinating Committee for Environmental Protection was established to ensure effective interaction between the Company’s structural units.

FRECOM, with its 15-year practical experience, is a leading company in the Russian environmental services market.

In July 2007, FRECOM won the bid to audit the Gazprom environmental management system.